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BILLERICA, Mass. – The University of Maine hockey team did a lot right in its reluctant 3-3 tie with UMass-Lowell Saturday at Tully Forum.
Goalie Alfie Michaud made 21 saves. The Bears defense held the River Hawks to three goals for the second night in a row, which is better than they’ve done.
Heck, the Black Bears even came from behind in the third to tie it – something they had not done this season. Maine trailed by a goal going into the last period. Going into the game, Maine had lost the six games in which it trailed after two periods.
But try as they might – and they tried 12 times – the Bears couldn’t get their impressive power play rolling after Scott Parmentier opened the scoring with a power-play goal 1 minute, 42 seconds into the game.
Put it this way, the River Hawks had a player in the penalty box for a period and a half worth of minutes. Their bad behavior provided the Bears with a total of 10 minutes with the man advantage.
Yet Maine went 1-for-13 on the power play Saturday. Maine now has gone 3-for-36 on the power play in its last five games.
Still the Bears, now 8-7-2, were glad just to get away with a tie.
“I like the way we came out. It’s easy to get frustrated,” UMaine coach Shawn Walsh said. “We stormed them. And we cut off their odd-man rush opportunities.”
Walsh and his players said Saturday Maine’s power play was merelyNothing to worry about.
Yet the River Hawks noticed a difference.
“Some days a team really clicks and can score no matter how good a penalty kill is. They took the night off on the power play,” UMass-Lowell’s Kevin Bertram said. “It’s a tough night when the refs call a lot of penalties. It’s frustrating.”
Keep in mind, the River Hawks, who sank to the cellar in Hockey East with their loss to Maine Friday, have the third best penalty kill in the league having killed off 84 percent of their opponents power plays.
“They came in playing very good on the penalty kill. We didn’t get a lot of breaks,” Walsh said. “They did a better job against [our power play]. And [Hawk goalie Scott] Rankhouser made some big saves.”
UMass-Lowell took advantage of Maine’s power-play struggles, forcing it to make passes, cutting off its passing angles, making it dump the puck.
The Hawks not only could tell the Bears were down, they tried to keep them down with their physical, fast style of play on their downsized rink.
“We had a lot of 5-on-3s. But for most of the 5-on-3s I was lying on the ice,” said Bear tri-captain Shawn Wansborough, who sat in the box for six minutes.
The Bears may not have been worried they couldn’t capitalize on the 36 shots Frankhouser stopped because they had enough to feel good about.
Maine killed off all eight of UMass-Lowell’s power plays. Steve Kariya scored his 100th-career point with a tying goal from the left post in the second. And for the second night in a row, freshman Tuomo Jaaskelainen kept the Bears from going into the Christmas break with a .500 record.
UMass-Lowell took the lead for the second time when Bertram flew down the left boards, came up alongside Michaud and pushed the puck to Kyle Kidney who lifted it past Michaud with 1:19 left in the second.
But with 3:06 left in the third, Ben Guite brought the puck from the blue line to the Hawks goal and passed it to Jaaskelainen, who had caught up to him. The freshman then one-timed it to the near side to tie the score.
“I saw him go from inside the blue line. I went to the goal,” Jaaskelainen said. “It was a great pass. I just hit it with my stick, I didn’t even see if it went in the goal.”
Kariya said the team was just glad to come away with a tie going into the break. At 5-5-1 in Hockey East, the Bears will take what they can get.
“We came away with three out of four points. That’s not bad,” Kariya said. “[The power play] will have ups and downs. For us to come from behind in that fashion, with three minutes to go, is huge. A loss would have been real disappointing.”
Maine’s next game is not until Jan. 9 against Merrimack in North Andover, Mass.
Bears, River Hawks tie
Maine (8-7-2) 1 1 1 0 – 3 UMass-Lowell (6-8-2) 1 2 0 0 – 3
First period – 1. Maine, Parmentier 8 (Larose, Kariya), 1:52, (ppg); 2. UML, Carso 1 (Hebert, Boulanger), 2:40; Penalties: UML, Nolan, holding, :40; Maine, Guite, elbowing, 3:53; UML, Koehler, interference, 6:18; Maine, Lundback, high sticking, 10:14; Maine, Wansborough, interference, 11:07; UML, Kidney, elbowing, 14:32; UML, Koehler, roughing, 17:39; UML, Nolan, roughing, 18:30; Maine, Wansborough, roughing, 19:45; UML, Bertram, roughing, 19:45
Second period – 3. UML, Cappelletti 2 (Basaraba), :43; 4. Maine, Kariya 14 (Stewart), 16:35; 5. UML, Kidney (Bertram, Basaraba), 18;41; Penalties: UML, Nolan, holding stick, 1:54; UML, Koehler, slashing, 2:14; Maine, Jaaskelainen, hooking, 3:56; Maine, White, tripping, 6;35; UML, Koehler, hooking, 7:44; UML, Bertram, unsportsmanlike, 18:41
Third period – 6. Maine, Jaaskelainen 5 (Guite), 16:52; Penalties: UML, Nolan, tripping, 1:00; UML, Koehler, interference, 2:36; UML, Bertram, hitting from behind, 2:36; Maine, Jaaskelainen, slashing, 2:36; Maine, Bertram, holding, 5:56; Maine, Cullen, tripping, 7:05; UML, Tormey, interference, 9:06; Maine, Wansborough, roughing, 9:06; Maine, Parmentier, roughing, 13:46; Maine, Cullen, holding, 17:20; UML, Tormey, inteference, 17:27
Shots-on-goal: Maine 7-17-14-1-39; UML 10-4-8-2-24
Goalies: Maine, Alfie Michaud; UML, Scott Fankhouser
Power-play opportunities: Maine 1-of-13; UML 0-of-8
High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 10-17-6-1-34; UML 9-4-14-0-27
Attendance: 1,179
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