Dimitrakos scores winner in third

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BOSTON – Senior right winger Niko Dimitrakos has had some memorable moments at the FleetCenter during his University of Maine men’s hockey career.

He came through again Friday night after almost being the goat.

Dimitrakos’ power-play goal with 13:01 remaining broke a 3-3 tie and gave the Bears a 4-3 victory over Boston University in their Hockey East semifinal Friday night.

Maine, 23-9-7 and unbeaten in its last nine (7-0-2), will face regular-season champion New Hampshire, 28-6-3 and a 4-3 winner over UMass-Lowell, in the championship game tonight at 8.

Just moments before his game-winner, Dimitrakos had been sent in alone by Michael Schutte only to have BU goalie Sean Fields smother his point-blank wrister with his left pad.

Earlier on the decisive power play, Dimitrakos was guilty of overstickhandling the puck high in the slot and BU poked it out of the zone and had a two-on-one.

But surprise starter Matt Yeats cut down the angle and took Mike Pandolfo’s one-timer from the high slot in the midsection.

“I tried to do too much and I was still rattled from missing the breakaway,” said Dimitrakos, who atoned seconds later.

Peter Metcalf had the puck at the top of the left circle and made a backhand pass to Schutte in the left corner. Dimitrakos broke to the net and Schutte put it on his stick.

“Michael made a great pass and I just chipped it over Fields’ glove,” said Dimitrakos, who added that he “loves playing at the FleetCenter.”

Two years ago, Dimitrakos scored the game-winning goal with two seconds left in the Bears’ 2-1 win over Boston College in the Hockey East title game.

Maine did an exceptional job protecting the lead, limiting the Terriers to seven shots on goal over the final 20 minutes including only two Grade-A shots on goal. Pandolfo’s was one of them.

“That was one of the best periods we’ve played all year,” said Dimitrakos.

“We smothered them,” agreed junior left wing Lucas Lawson, whose eight-game goal-scoring streak came to an end.

Lawson felt the Terriers may have tired because “they were playing only five defensemen [due to injuries to Pat Aufiero and Bryan Miller]. That hurt them.”

BU junior center Brian Collins staked the Terriers to a 2-0 lead in the first period, but the Bears scored the next three. Chris Dyment equalized on the power play with 2:23 remaining in the middle period.

Colin Shields pulled Maine within 2-1 with 6:56 remaining in the first period and Gray Shaneberger and Tommy Reimann gave Maine its first lead of the game with goals at the 1:08 and 2:24 marks in the second period.

The Terriers appeared as thought they were going to make short work of the Bears in the first period as they completed dominated the first 10 minutes and were justly rewarded with Collins’ goals.

Maine looked like anything but a team that had entered the game with an eight-game unbeaten streak.

BU won all the loose pucks and the one-on-one battles while the Bears looked lethargic and totally out of sync.

Collins opened the scoring at the 7:30 mark. He had his back to the Maine net when Pandolfo’s wrister from the point hit him in the chest and dropped to his feet. With Maine freshman defenseman Troy Barnes draped on his back in the middle of the slot, Collins did a 180-degree spin and slipped the puck past Yeats’ left skate from 20 feet out.

Just 1:41 later, Collins was camped in front of the net and deflected Ryan Whitney’s wrister from the point over Yeats’ glove.

But the Bears received a badly needed lift from leading goal scorer Shields off a diagonal pass from Reimann.

Shields got the puck in the left circle, cradled it, and snapped a wrister through Fields’ pads.

“That got us going,” said Liscak.

Lawson added, “We breathed a big sigh of relief on the bench.”

Shaneberger tied it thanks to a Fields miscue.

Francis Nault took a Liscak pass, closed to the middle of the left circle, and fired a quick wrister headed for the far corner. Fields got his glove on it but couldn’t hang on, and the on-coming Shaneberger roofed the rebound from 12 feet out.

Reimann gave Maine the lead when he changed the direction of Ryan’s wrister from the left point.

Dyment tied it up when Gregg Johnson cleanly won a faceoff from Marty Kariya in the left circle and swept a screened wrister from the right point that slipped through Yeats’ pads.

Yeats finished with 27 saves while Fields had 25.

“We played hard,” said BU senior defenseman and co-captain Dyment. “We made a bad read on the penalty kill on Dimitrakos’ goal and if you do that against a player like him, he’s going to score.”

Pandolfo said, “It was a great game and they got a fortunate bounce.”

BU coach Jack Parker said, “It was a clean, well-played game and we played the way we wanted to. They played well and had a good second-period spurt where we came undone a little bit. Sean Fields made some great saves, but he wasn’t as sharp as he has been.”

BLACK BEARS 4, TERRIERS 3

Maine (23-9-7) 1 2 1 ? 4

Boston Univ. (25-9-3) 2 1 0 ? 3

First period ? 1. BU, Collins 11 (Pandolfo, Mullen), 7:30; 2. BU, Collins 12 (Whitney, Dyment), 9:11; 3. Maine, Shields 27 (Reimann), 13:04; Penalties: BU, Meyer, roughing, 8:44; Maine, Metcalf, roughing, 8:44; Maine, Kariya, high-sticking, 17:53

Second period ? 4. Maine, Shaneberger 7 (Nault, Liscak), 1:08; 5. Maine, Reimann 12 (Ryan, Heisten), 2:24; 6. BU, Dyment 7 (Johnson), 17:37, (pp); Penalties: BU, Meiser, high-sticking, 14:19; Maine, Metcalf, holding, 15:59

Third period ? 7. Maine, Dimitrakos 19 (Schutte, Metcalf), 6:59, (pp); Penalties: BU, team, too many men on ice, 5:56; BU, Sabo, roughing, 17:29

Shots on goal: Maine 6-7-16?29; BU 9-14-7?30

Goaltenders: Maine, Yeats (30 shots-27 saves); BU, Fields (29-25)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 1-for-3; BU 1-for-2

Attendance: 15,683