Black Bears headed to Final Four again

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ORONO – At this time last year, the University of Maine’s hockey locker room in Madison, Wisc. was as depressing as a funeral. Maine had just been eliminated by the University of Wisconsin, 4-3 in overtime, in their NCAA Tournament quarterfinal series.

There was a totally different mood in the Maine locker room at the Alfond Arena here Saturday night after the Bears had rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Minnesota 5-3 and sweep their best-of-three series two games to none.

Maine earned its third trip to the NCAA Tournament Final Four in the last four years.

Maine, 32-8-2, will face Northern Michigan, 36-5-4, in Thursday’s 3:05 p.m. semifinal at the St. Paul (Minn.) Civic Center.

“The guys remembered how it felt and what it was like last year,” said Bear junior left winger and tri-captain Scott Pellerin. “We realized what we had to do so it wouldn’t happen again.”

But it wasn’t easy Saturday as the swift-skating and persistent Golden Gophers showed no effects from playing their seventh game in 14 days in building a 3-1 lead.

“I tip my hat to Minnesota, they played a whale of a game,” said Maine Coach Shawn Walsh.

Minnesota spotted Maine a 1-0 lead on Keith Carney’s first-period power play goal (a 20-foot wrist shot off a Jim Montgomery pass) before defensemen Luke Johnson (a screened shot from the right point) and Tom Pederson (a 10-footer off a two-on-one with Trent Klatt) supplied the Gophers with their first lead of the series.

Left winger Grant Bischoff opened the second-period scoring with a fluke power play goal which went in off Montgomery’s helmet at the 1:42 mark.

Maine goalie Garth Snow then came up with a great glove save on Pederson’s solo effort and the Bears fought back to tie it on goals 3:39 apart by Chris Imes and Jim Montgomery.

Junior center Martin Robitaille got the sixth playoff game-winner of his career 25 seconds into the third period and Jean-Yves Roy added an insurance goal with 5:43 remaining.

Minnesota Coach Doug Woog said the difference in the series was that “Maine had better snipers.”

Walsh agreed.

“There’s no question that our snipers were the difference,” said Walsh. “At key moments in the game, the right people got the scoring chances for us.”

Woog said he felt Imes’ goal was the turning point in the game “because at that point, we had them pretty well checked.”

Dan Murphy swept the puck around the boards and it squirted to defense partner Imes, whose 40-foot slap shot glanced in off a Minnesota player.

“I was moving with the shot but it hit somebody and went between my legs,” said Gopher goalie Tom Newman.

“That goal moved the momentum over to us,” said Pellerin.

Just 1:20 later, Carney took a hooking penalty but the Bears killed it off.

“I thought that was a turning point,” said Walsh. “After we killed that off, the crowd really got into it and the momentum switched back to us. Then Jimmy got his goal.”

Montgomery scored just 19 seconds after the penalty expired. A Montgomery pass from behind the net deflected to Brian Downey, who fired a 20-foot snap shot that glanced off Newman’s glove.

Montgomery came out from behind the net and shoveled the rebound into the short side.

The alert Robitaille gave Maine the lead for good when he intercepted a clear-out attempt by the diving Johnson and headed for the net with Pellerin and Mike Barkley on a three-on-one.

“I was going to pass it to Pellerin but it was too crowded so I took it to the net. He (Newman) made the first move by going down and I put it upstairs,” said Robitaille.

“I tried to pokecheck him but he put the shot over my glove,” said Newman.

Barkley tied up the lone Gopher defenseman back.

“That was an exceptional shot by Martin,” said Pellerin.

Roy gave the Bears some badly needed breathing room off a two-on-one with Montgomery when he cleanly beat Newman to the glove side with a 25-foot bullet from the left wing.

“Coach (Walsh) told us they were always playing the pass on our two-on-ones. So he told us to get our shots on net and get the second guy going to the net,” said Roy. “I tried to put the shot on net.”

“That was a rocket,” said Newman.

Gopher tri-captain Bischoff said, “We didn’t put the puck in the net and they did.”

Minnesota, which wound up 30-10-5, outshot Maine 29-24 and had 16 Grade-A (high-percentage) shots on goal to Maine’s 11.

Maine is now 14-1 in (Division I Hockey East and NCAA) playoff games at the Alfond Arena, including nine straight wins.

Black Bears 5, Gophers 3

Maine 1 2 2 – 5 Minnesota 2 1 0 – 3

First Period – 1. Maine, Carney 7 (Downey, Montgomery), 3:42; 2. Minnesota, Johnson 8 (Hankinson, Bischoff), 4:14; 3. Minnesota, Pederson 12 (Gernander, Klatt), 17:11. Penalties – Maine, Pellerin, high sticking, 0:38; Minnesota, Zmolek, roughing, 2:46; Maine, Martin, holding, 6:58; Minnesota, Hankinson, elbowing, 11:09; Minnesota, McAlpine, roughing, 18:09

Second Period – 4. Minnesota, Bischoff 23 (Hankinson, Miller), 1:42; 5. Maine, Imes 6 (Murphy), 8:23; 6. Maine, Montgomery 24 (Roy, Downey), 12:02. Penalties – Maine, Barkley, hitting from behind, 0:17; Maine, Carney, hooking, 9:43; Minnesota, Olimb, hooking, 14:54; Maine, Montgomery, hooking, 17:56

Third Period – 7. Maine, Robitaille 23 (unassisted), 0:25; 8. Maine, Roy 34 (Downey), 14:17. Penalties – Minnesota, Nielsen, high sticking, 6:37; Maine, Pellerin, roughing, 11:49; Minnesota, McAlpine, roughing, 11:49; Maine, Imes, holding, 14:48; Minnesota, Gernander, tripping, 18:48

Shots on goal – Maine 10-7-7-24; Minnesota 8-10-11-29

Goaltenders – Maine, Garth Snow; Minnesota, Tom Newman

Attendance – 3,792