ORONO- Senior defenseman and captain Brandon Holt sent the sellout crowd at Alfond Arena home with a final ‘treat’ on Halloween on Friday night. Holt scored 43 seconds into overtime on a beautiful setup from freshman forward Justin Poirier to give #12 Maine a 5-4 comeback win over #5 Boston University in men’s Hockey East action. The game winner by Holt in overtime is his first career game winning overtime goal, helping the Black Bears rally from a goal down on four different occasions to take their conference opener.
Cole Hutson put Boston University up 1-0 at 3:15 of the first period after a Maine turnover near center ice. The response by the Black Bears took just four seconds. Jeremy Langlois fired the puck into the offensive zone on Terriers goaltender Mikhail Yegorov. Yegorov kicked it away with his pads, but right to the stick of Poirier in the low slot who let a hard wristshot go that found the net stick side on the netminder at 3:19. The guests regained a 2-1 advantage on the powerplay when Ryder Ritchie scored at 8:28.
Sully Scholle would notch his first goal of the season at 7:01 of the second period to get Maine back even. Owen Fowler turned along the right wing boards and put one towards the net with Scholle standing in front. Scholle got a piece of it and deflected it through the legs of Yegorov. Boston University once again regained their one goal lead when Ben Merrill backhanded a rebound past Black Bears goalie Albin Boija at 14:27. Maine, who was able to fight through the adversity all night, would answer 2:20 later when Fowler recorded his first second tally of the season. Lukas Peterson started the play in the defensive zone sending a pass to Scholle across the blue line. Scholle would shuffle it off to Miguel Marques in the right faceoff circle, who then found Fowler in the bottom of the left circle who beat Yegorov stick side at 16:47 as it was 3-3 heading to the third.
For a fourth time in the game, Boston University leaped back in front when Sasha Boumedienne scored at 4:05 of the third. Boumedienne got a cross ice pass from Jack Harvey and rifled a knuckled shot from the right circle past Boija far side. The freshman Poirier answered for Maine 2:55 later. Langlois took a shot from the middle point that missed, but the puck bounced off the back boards and Poirier who was standing in front to the left of Yegorov jammed it home to make it 4-4. The Terriers had a great opportunity late in the game to possibly win it. At 15:24, Max Scott was called for a tripping penalty and at 16:42 Frank Djurasevic was whistled for slashing giving BU a 5 on 3 powerplay for 42 seconds. But the Black Bears in maybe their toughest moments of the game fought through to keep it tied with Boija coming up with a few key saves that would eventually send the contest to overtime.
In the 3 on 3 extra session, Boston University had the initial possession before Maine got a handle on it. Poirier skating with speed through center ice got past Hutson and just inside the blue line on the right wing in the attacking zone, and noticed a streaking Holt over on the left wing who had made a heads up play to join the rush. Holt received the tape to tape pass and broke in alone, deeking from his forehand to his backhand tucking it into the cage five-hole on Yegorov for the Black Bears only lead of the night to cap the dramatic comeback victory.
Hutson had a goal and an assist in the loss for Boston University. Yegorov made 30 saves. The Terriers went 1-4 on the powerplay, while falling to 3-4-1 on the season and 1-2-0 in Hockey East. Poirier had his two goals and also added an assist for Maine. Poirier now leads all freshman in the country with seven goals (in just seven games played). Scholle and Fowler each had one goal and one assist. Langlois, Marques, and Djurasevic added two assists a piece. Boija made 24 stops, and the Black Bears would go 0-5 on their powerplay opportunities. Maine is now 4-2-1 and 1-0 in the conference and will finish off their two game series with BU on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
Featured photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco
