New line helps Maine rally by UMass

loading...

AMHERST, Mass. – University of Maine hockey coach Shawn Walsh decided this week to put three struggling players together on one line: senior left wing Dan Kerluke, sophomore center Tommy Reimann and junior transfer Donny Richardson.

Walsh thought the change might jumpstart the three of them and it also gave them the opportunity to prove whether they deserved to stay in the lineup.

They probably do.

Kerluke’s second goal of the game, coming with 50 seconds left in overtime, gave the Bears a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the University of Massachusetts Friday night.

Reimann set up both Kerluke goals and Richardson assisted on Kerluke’s tying goal which came with 12:27 remaining.

Reimann and Richardson were healthy scratches for last Sunday’s 3-2 overtime win over New Hampshire.

“We’ve all been struggling a lot. But we tried to think positive and we played well. And the team got the win,” said Reimann.

Reimann made a great play in setting up the winning goal.

He gained the puck at center ice, made a little flip pass to himself off the left-wing boards and then slid a pass to the on-coming Kerluke, who one-timed the puck from the left circle off the arm of UMass goalie Markus Helanen and into the upper corner.

“I didn’t want to turn the puck over so I carried it into the zone,” said Reimann. “A couple of their guys came over to me so I fed it to Dan.”

“Tommy is such a smart player and he has great hands,” said Kerluke. “Coach told us to shoot quickly in order to catch Helanen moving laterally. I just wanted to get it up high. I one-timed it,” said Kerluke.

Helanen said he was surprised it went in.

“I thought I got a good piece of my left arm on it,” said Helanen.

Kerluke said he received a midnight call from teammates Mike Morrison, Niko Dimitrakos and Brendan Donovan earlier in the week to encourage him to dig out the skate blades he used his sophomore year when he scored 23 goals.

Kerluke found them in the equipment room and put them on for the game. It was his first multiple-goal game since his hat trick at Providence on March 4.

Kerluke had tied the game with 12:27 left when Reimann made a nice tape-to-tape pass to him while he was cruising the slot and he patiently stickhandled around Helanen before depositing it into the open net.

“One of our defensemen, Samuli [Jalkanen] broke his stick and when I tried to clear the puck out of the zone, it hit the stick and stayed in,” said Helanen.

Reimann then fed it across to the open Kerluke.

“Donny and Tommy battled hard to keep the puck in the zone,” said Kerluke.

UMass senior center and captain Jeff Turner said Jalkanen came to the bench to get a stick and the other defenseman went over to Reimann which left Kerluke open.

UMass had been 6-0-1 when leading after two periods before Friday night. Maine had been 0-7 when trailing after two periods before beating New Hampshire 3-2 in overtime last Sunday. UNH led 2-1 after two.

Darcy King’s first-period goal and Martin Miljko’s second-period score had staked the Minutemen to a 2-0 lead but Robert Liscak scored 50 seconds into the third period to cut the lead in half.

Maine is now 12-9-6 overall, 7-6-4 in Hockey East. UMass fell to 7-19-3 and 6-12-1 in the league. The teams will play again Saturday night.

The first two periods had been a painful lesson in frustration for the Bears.

With two minutes left in the second period, the Minutemen had attempted just two shots through the first 18 minutes of the middle period.

Only one went on net and it actually landed in the back of the net to give the Minutemen their 2-0 lead.

Junior center King had opened the scoring just 2:08 into the game with a weird goal off a rebound. He had gone 17 games without a goal.

Black Bears 3, Minutemen 2 (OT)

Maine (12-9-6) 0 0 2 1? 3

Massachusetts (7-19-3) 1 1 0 0? 2

First period ? 1. UMass, King 3 (Horvath, Callahan), 2:08; Penalties: UMass, Horvath, charging, 7:37; UMass, Soderholm, interference, 18:46

Second period ? 2. UMass, Miljko 12 (Gates), 1:36; Penalties: Maine, Janik, interference, 8:05; Maine, Kariya, holding, 12:17; UMass, Gates, high-sticking, 12:17; UMass, Jalkanen, cross-checking, 14:49; UMass, Gates, holding the stick, 18:45

Third period ? 3. Maine, Liscak 5 (Dimitrakos, Nault), :50; 4. Maine, Kerluke 6 (Richardson, Reimann), 7:33; Penalties: Maine, Loya, roughing, 1:57; Maine, Metcalf, holding 14:55

Overtime ? 5. Maine, Kerluke 7 (Reimann), 4:10; Penalties: none

Shots on goal: Maine 14-9-11-2?36; UMass 11-3-8-2?23

Goaltenders: Maine, Yeats (23 shots-21 saves); UMass, Helanen (36-33)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 0 of 4; UMass 0 of 3

Attendance: 3,178