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ORONO – Tim Whitehead called Wednesday night’s 3-2 overtime win over Brown University “ugly.”
But the University of Maine’s interim men’s hockey coach enjoyed it just the same.
“We needed one of these. We’ve had a couple of high-scoring games and that’s not going to be the case most of the year. Brown is obviously a real good hard-working hockey team. This was a gutsy win for us. It was our third game in six nights and there weren’t a lot of pretty plays out there,” said Whitehead.
Colin Shields’ 11th goal of the season won it with 1:32 left in OT after the Bears received the tying goal from Gray Shaneberger with 10:45 left in the third period.
Shields’ game-winner came on the power play after Brown’s Jason Wilson had hooked Maine defenseman Francis Nault under the mask.
The Bears, winners of three in a row and 6-4-2 overall, were able to sustain pressure in the Brown zone and Marty Kariya slid the puck to Shields, who pushed it back to Peter Metcalf at the right point.
“Their forward who came out on me had lost his stick. So I walked around him and took a wrist shot that hit the crossbar,” said Metcalf.
The puck dropped straight down and referee Jeff Bunyon signaled that it hadn’t crossed the goal line.
Shields wasn’t sure if it was a goal and decided to make sure.
“The puck came bouncing out to me. You couldn’t have scored an easier goal,” said Shields.
Brown sophomore goalie Yann Danis, making his first start of the season, said, “[Metcalf] made a good shot. He beat me cleanly over my glove shoulder. I don’t know what happened after that.”
Josh Barker, a Brown senior defenseman and captain, said one of their defensemen had broken his stick 45 seconds earlier and the forward who came out at Metcalf “had given his stick to the defenseman.”
Brown (2-4) manufactured a pair of one-goal leads on Wilson’s first-period goal and Chris Legg’s second-period tally. Niko Dimitrakos equalized for Maine 4:19 after Wilson’s goal.
Shaneberger’s tying goal came on a wraparound to Danis’ right.
“I tried to throw the puck to the slot, but I missed it. So I stayed on the puck, came around the net, and tried to stuff it. It hit the goalie’s stick or something and popped up over his shoulder,” said Shaneberger.
Danis said, “Ninety-nine percent of the time I would have stopped that. I don’t know what happened.”
Brown played a near-perfect road game, utilizing the neutral zone trap to frustrate Maine and prevent the Bears from generating transition opportunities.
Brown also protected the front of its net extremely well and limited Maine to very few odd-man rushes.
Their two goals came at the expense of the Maine freshman line of Chad Anderson between Jon Jankus and John Ronan.
Both goals came off rushes after the freshman line had generated some good pressure in the offensive zone that nearly resulted in high-percentage scoring chances.
Wilson scored when Mike Meech fed him a smart flip pass and he broke down the right wing alone. Maine goalie Mike Morrison stacked his pads a little early and Wilson roofed a 10-foot wrister.
Dimitrakos tied it with a 30-foot snap shot off a faceoff play. Tommy Reimann won the puck back to him and Dimitrakos skated from left to right in the high slot before sailing his snap shot past Danis’ right leg.
Brown regained the lead when Legg was set up by Jarrett Robertson and Nick Ringstad. Legg accelerated into the low slot and squeezed a backhander through Morrison’s pads.
Brown had a great chance to add to its lead when a Paul Lynch high-sticking penalty and a protest by Whitehead resulting in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the visitors a full two-minute two-man advantage that spanned the second and third periods.
But Matt Yeats, who came on by design halfway through the game, made several good saves and Brown hit a couple of posts.
“I just tried to stay focused,” said Yeats. “And the guys did a good job in front of me. I saw just about every shot.”
“We created some good chances but didn’t score,” said Brown coach and former Maine defenseman Roger Grillo. “We played a good game. That’s the way we’ve played all year except for one game.”
BLACK BEARS 3, BEARS 2 (OT)
Brown (2-4) 1 1 0 0 ? 2
Maine (6-4-2) 1 0 1 1 ? 3
First period ? 1. Brown, Wilson 2 (Meech), 2:49; 2. Maine, Dimitrakos 7 (Reimann), 7:08. Penalties: Maine, Nault, hooking, 11:47; Brown, Wilson, roughing, 14:22
Second period ? 2. Brown, Legg 1 (Robertson, Ringstad), 2:41. Penalties: Brown, Ford, holding, :13; Brown, Meech, holding, 8:13; Maine, Jankus, roughing, 8:13; Brown, Macri, holding the stick, 12:11; Maine, Lynch, high sticking, 19:38; Maine, bench minor on Coach Whitehead for unsportsmanlike conduct (served by Anderson), 19:38
Third period ? 4. Maine, Shaneberger 2 (Liscak, Loya), 9:15. Penalties: Brown, Robertson, roughing, 1:56; Brown, Barker, hitting after whistle, 9:41; Maine, Schutte, slashing, 9:41; Brown, Barker, slashing, 9:41; Maine, Nault, roughing, 10:52; Brown, Dirkes, interference, 18:07
Overtime ? 5. Maine, Shields 11 (Metcalf), 3:28 (pp). Penalties: Brown, Wilson, hooking, 2:15
Shots on goal: Brown 8-8-5-2?23; Maine 11-9-10-2?32
Goaltenders: Brown, Danis (32 shots-29 saves); Maine, Morrison (11-9), Yeats (9:41 of 2nd, 12-12)
Power-play Opportunities: Brown 0 of 4; Maine 1 of 7
High-percentage opportunities: Brown 6-8-5-1?20; Maine 9-6-5-2?22
Attendance: 4,219
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