LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS- It was a tale of three different games on Saturday night at the Tsongas Center. #17 Maine got off to a 3-0 lead over UMass-Lowell, fell behind 5-3, and then rallied to force overtime and got a game winner from Max Scott to earn a 6-5 men’s Hockey East victory. The Black Bears took five of a possible six conference points on the weekend.
Maine got off to their fast start with two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. Sully Scholle tallied at 5:11, followed by Thomas Pichette at 10:00. A breakaway goal by Miguel Marques at 7:09 of the second period made it 3-0 Black Bears. After going 150 minutes without scoring that included a 2-0 loss in the opener on Friday night, UMass-Lowell came to life as Chris Delaney, Sean Kilcullen, and Dominic Payne all found the net in a span of 3:04 to tie things up 3-3. The Riverhawks took their first lead of the series at 1:25 of the third on a goal from Lee Parks, and then made it 5-3 off the stick of Dillan Bentley at 9:32. Maine though would battle back to force overtime. Will Gerrior converted a turnover into his teams fourth goal of the night just 20 seconds after the Bentley marker, and Loic Usereau found the equalizer through traffic from the point after an offensive zone faceoff win to make it 5-5 at 12:44. Charlie Russell set up the game winning goal in the extra session, taking the puck down the right wing and behind the net before centering it to Scott who fired home a one-timer from the slot at 3:14 to end it.
Bentley led UMass-Lowell in the loss with one goal and two assists. Delaney and Parks both added one goal and one assist, while Diego Buttazzoni contributed two assists. Freshman Samuel Richard made 32 saves, and the Riverhawks went 0-4 on the powerplay. UML drops to 9-16 and 5-10 in Hockey East. Brandon Holt and Brock James both had two assists for Maine. Russell, Lukas Peterson, and Owen Fowler each chipped in one assist a piece. Albin Boija made 25 stops in net, and the Black Bears went 0-1 on their lone powerplay chance. Maine improves to 14-9-2 and 8-7-0 in conference play, and will finally return back home to Alfond Arena for the first time in a month and a half to take on Providence College for a single game next Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Friars, who are currently in first place in the league, swept the Black Bears (6-1, 3-0) by a combined score of 9-1 in Rhode Island two weeks ago.
