Second-period surge lifts Bears to win Maine, RPI in tonight’s final

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ORONO – This year’s University of Maine hockey team lacks the explosive scoring punch that helped earn it the NCAA national championship last season.

However, the Black Bears showed Friday night that they still have the ability to put together an offensive flurry – and it’s a good thing they did.

Dave MacIsaac, Brad Purdie and Paul Kariya each scored a goal during a span of a minute and five seconds to help send Maine on its way to a 6-4 victory over the University of Illinois-Chicago in Friday’s first round of the Dexter Hockey Classic at the Alfond Arena.

Coach Shawn Walsh’s 7-1 Black Bears advanced to Saturdy’s 7 p.m. tourney championship game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a 5-4 winner over Bowling Green in Friday’s early game.

Bowling Green and Illinois-Chicago will meet in Saturdy’s 4 p.m. consolation contest.

Senior center Pat Tardif helped the Black Bears weather a late surge by the fiesty Flames, firing a backhander from the middle of the left circle over the glove of goaltender Jeff Featherstone with 4:15 remaining.

Tardif and Andy Silverman then assisted on an empty-net tally by Mike Latendresse, who scored from low in the right circle with 29 seconds left to ice it.

Illinois-Chicago, now 2-9, had refused to back down. The Flames put the pressure back on at 17:14 when Mike Dennis crashed the net hard and stuffed the rebound of a Marc Genest shot past Marsh.

The lackluster performance had Maine Coach Shawn Walsh wondering whether the players had eaten too much on Thanksgiving.

“I thought we played about 10 minutes of hockey,” Walsh said. “We didn’t play very well at all.”

“I just told them (between the first and second periods) to get away from trying to force offense and come back to the puck, keep it simple and play defense,” Walsh said. “As soon as we got the three-goal lead, we got fancy again.”

Maine’s roller coaster intensity may have been a symptom of its second-period spurt.

“We always like to say it’s a lot easier to react, in a more positive way, to adversity than it is to success,” said Maine senior Justin Tomberlin. “When things come to easy, that’s harder to deal with. Human nature, when you have adversity, is to fight back.”

Maine’s second-period barrage was started by MacIsaac, who wheeled around at the right point and blasted a shot through traffic that beat Featherstone high to the short side at the 3:42 mark.

Purdie made it 3-1 only 35 seconds later when he alertly streaked through the middle, going from Featherstone’s right to his left, then snapping a wrister into the right side of the net.

The crowd was still buzzing about the second goal when Kariya streaked across the blue line into the high slot and launched a low rocket shot past Featherstone.

“We just kind of took it easy for a while and played their game,” Tardif said. “We thought it was going to be easy and they came back. We just played well enough to win it.”

The three-goal uprising gave the Bears a decided edge in momentum, but may have caused them to get a bit lackadaisical. Illinois-Chicago picked up the pace in the last seven minutes of the period.

The Flames cut the deficit to 4-2 on the power play when Mark Zdan picked up a loose rebound in front and flipped it into an open net at the 15:56 mark.

Illinois-Chicago then battled to within one at 13:32 of the third. Mark Zdan pounced on a rebound in front and punched it past Blair Marsh to make it a one-goal game.

Shermerhorn had put Maine on the board at 6:08 of the first period, courtesy of a vintage Kariya pass. Kariya skated from the Maine end down across the UIC blue line at the right point, where he was cut off by a UIC defender.

Kariya zipped a pass into the low slot, where Shermerhorn drilled a shot over Featherstone’s left shoulder.

The Flames then carried much of the action and tied it at the 10:35 mark, seconds after freshman defenseman Jason Mansoff crashed into the boards head first and had to leave the game.

Junior left wing Derek Knorr took a feed from Rob Mottau in the high slot and snapped a low wrister through a crowd, beating Marsh low to his righthand side.

Marsh had a couple of nifty saves from that point on, including one pad save that snuffed out a golden chance in front by Knorr with 4:30 left in the period.

ICE CHIPS: Mansoff became the team’s latest casualty Friday night when he went down with a strained left knee. The preliminary injury report has him out for up to three weeks. Maine’s depleted defense corps is now down to five players, so Tomberlin may be making the switch over to defense until either freshman Jeff Tory is reinstated or senior Jason Weinrich comes back from his knee injury.

Black Bears 6, Flames 4

(Friday Night) Illinois-Chicago 1 1 2 – 4 Maine 1 3 2 – 6

First Period – 1. Maine, Shermerhorn 2 (Kariya), 6:08; 2. UIC, Knorr 5 (Mottau), 10:35; Penalties – Maine, Rodrigue, hooking, 13:26; UIC, MacDonald, holding, 16:59

Second Period – 3. Maine, MacIsaac 1 (Tomberlin), 3:42; 4. Maine, Purdie 2 (Texeira, Mahoney), 4:17; 5. Maine, Kariya 7 (Shermerhorn), 4:47; 6. UIC, Zdan 4 (Peron, MacDonald); Penalties – Maine, Rodrigue, slashing, 10:11; UIC, Knorr, slashing, 10:11; UIC, Dunbar, roughing, 12:23; Maine, Silverman, tripping, 14:40; Maine, Tardif, hitting after whistle, 16;07; UIC, McMillan, roughing, 16:07

Third Period – 7. Zdan 5 (Peron, Thibodeau), 13:32; 8. Tardif 6 (Kariya), 15:45; 9. Dennis 2 (Genest), 17:14; 10. Tradif 7 (Latendresse), 19:31; Penalties – Maine, Saunders, tripping, 1:24; UIC, Finner, holding, 1:24; Maine, Roenick, boarding, 11:31; UIC, Mathias, roughing, 11:31; Maine, Silverman, roughing, 12:02; UIC, Brenner, tripping, 15:26

Shots on goal: Maine 12-8-11 – 31; Illinois-Chicago 10-6-14 – 30

Goaltenders: Maine, Blair Marsh; Illinois-Chicago, Jeff Featherstone