Ferhi helps Pioneers tie Bears Goalie logs 47 saves, Sacred Heart rallies

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ORONO -MAAC member Sacred Heart (Conn.) should have been a perfect elixir for the University of Maine Black Bears Sunday night in the wake of their heart-breaking 3-2 overtime loss to archrival Boston University on Friday night.

Guess again.

Former French Junior National goaltender Eddy Ferhi made 47 saves, the gritty Pioneers were tenacious in front of him and proved to be opportunists in forging a 4-4 overtime tie with the Black Bears.

“The guys played awesome,” said the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Ferhi, who made 19 Grade-A saves including three in overtime.

“I faced a lot of shots against Providence (47 in an 8-1 loss last month) but they were much harder than the ones I faced today.”

Maine is now 3-4-2 overall while Sacred Heart, which finished fifth in the MAAC a year ago, is 2-3-1.

Maine bolted out to a 2-0 lead as Niko Dimitrakos and Colin Shields scored 3:20 apart in the game’s first 8:43.

But Sacred Heart’s Martin Paquet answered 15 seconds after Shields’ goal and the Pioneers stunned the Bears with second-period goals by Lloyd Marks and Richard Naumann to take a 3-2 lead into the final 20 minutes.

Lucas Lawson equalized 1:31 into the third period and Marty Kariya’s power-play goal 3:53 later gave Maine its first lead since the first period.

But Lloyd Tennant equalized with 4:40 remaining on a slow bouncing shot from the top of the slot.

“Garrett Larson did a heckuva job digging out the puck, Paul Sposito tipped it over to me and I just shot it. The puck was on edge,” said Tennant.

Maine goalie Matt Yeats said, “It hit one of our defenseman’s shin pads and changed directions. It went through my legs.

“It was a weird game. I didn’t get a bounce,” said Yeats, who finished with just nine saves on 13 shots and was forced to make only two Grade-A stops.

“Our guys battled real hard and put in the extra effort necessary in our own zone,” said Pioneer coach Shaun Hannah.

“We didn’t play with any heart. We didn’t come to play. Period. If we played hard, they wouldn’t have had a chance,” said Kariya.

Maine interim head coach Tim Whitehead said Sacred Heart was “very persistent” and his team failed to support the puck in the defensive zone so when they turned it over, it led to good scoring chances.

“Defensive letdowns killed us,” said Lawson.

Dimitrakos opened the scoring with a snap shot from the left circle over Ferhi’s glove after coming out of the corner and Shields sailed a wrister over his glove off a faceoff win by Chris Heisten. Shields skated from left to right across the slot.

Paquet capitalized on a Peter Metcalf turnover as he found himself alone in the slot to the left of Yeats and he went high to the short side.

Marks tied it when he was set up beautifully by Nick Henck from the corner. The wide open Marks simply had to one-time the puck into the short side from the low slot.

Naumann gave the Pioneers the lead with 2:10 left in the second period. His centering pass hit the stick of Metcalf and came back to him and he deposited it into the vacant short side as Yeats had slid over to cover the far post.

Lawson equalized 1:31 into the third period when Tommy Reimann fed him a pass from behind the net and he roofed a 10-foot wrist shot over Ferhi’s pads.

Reimann’s shot from the point resulted in Kariya’s goal as the rebound came to Mike Schutte at the top of the crease and he shoveled it over to Kariya positioned to Ferhi’s right.

Gray Shaneberger rang a potential clinching goal off the far post with 11:50 left and the Pioneers’ Tennant tied it up several minutes later.

Ferhi’s best save of the game came in overtime when Kariya fed the puck out of the corner to Reimann in the middle of the slot. The butterfly-style goalie flashed out his glove and snared Reimann’s one-timer.

“It wasn’t that hard of a shot and he shot it low,” said Ferhi, who gloved it a couple of feet off the ice.

“Next time, I’ll put it upstairs,” said Reimann.

PIONEERS 4, BLACK BEARS 4 (OT)

Sacred Heart (2-3-1) 1 2 1 0 ? 4

Maine (3-4-2) 2 0 2 0 ? 4

First period ? 1. Maine, Dimitrakos 3 (unassisted), 5:23; 2. Maine, Shields 8 (Heisten, Liscak), 8:43; 3. SHeart, Paquet 3 (unassisted), 8:58. Penalties: none.

Second period ? 4. SHeart, Marks 2 (Nutcher, Henck), 8:05; 5. SHeart, Naumann 1 (McRae, Reagan), 17:50. Penalties: SHeart, McRae, high sticking, 8:54; Maine, Deschamps, elbowing, 12:47.

Third period ? 6. Maine, Lawson 2 (Dimitrakos, Reimann) 1:31; 7. Maine, Kariya 3 (Schutte, Reimann) 5:24 (pp); 8. Sheart, Tennant 4 (Larson, Sposito) 15:20; Penalties: Sheart, Hawkes, interference, 8:54; Maine, Deschamps, elbowing, 12:47; SHeart, Hawkes, interference, 5:09; Maine, Lynch, tripping, 10:07; SHeart, Polk, slashing, 19:26

Overtime ? no scoring; Penalties: none

Shots on goal: SHeart 5-5-3-0?13; Maine 13-19-14-5?51

Goaltenders: SHeart, Ferhi (51 shots-47 saves); Maine, Yeats (13-9)

Power-play opportunities: SHeart, 0-2; Maine, 1-3

High-percentage scoring chances: SHeart 3-2-3-0?8; Maine 9-8-6-4?27

Attendance: 4,313