Maine collects tourney crown Bears pound Minutemen 8-3

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ESTERO, Fla. – The University of Maine’s hockey team hasn’t trailed in many games this season.

The Bears found themselves trailing in both Everblades College Hockey Classic games this weekend but rallied to win the tournament title for the second time in three years.

Maine scored six unanswered goals to erase a 2-1 deficit and post an 8-3 victory over Hockey East rival Massachusetts at Teco Arena Sunday night.

The Bears had overcome a 1-0 second-period deficit with three unanswered third-period goals to beat Cornell 3-2 on Saturday night. UMass advanced after battling to a 2-2 overtime tie with Ohio State and outscoring the Buckeyes 2-1 in the shootout.

Maine, ranked No. 1 in the country in one poll and No. 2 in the other, extended its unbeaten streak to 16 games (14-0-2) and is now 15-1-2.

UMass fell to 10-7-1.

Senior center and assistant captain Marty Kariya and senior right winger Gray Shaneberger had two goals and an assist apiece in the championship game.

It was the first two-goal games of the season for both although both have had productive streaks of late.

Kariya extended his points streak to six games (3 goals, 6 assists) while Shaneberger has scored goals in three of his last four games.

Shaneberger was chosen the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Kariya and Bear teammates senior center Robert Liscak and junior goalie Frank Doyle were chosen to the all-tournament team along with Cornell defenseman Doug Murray, Ohio State center R.J. Umberger and UMass defenseman Thomas Pock.

Ohio State beat Cornell 1-0 in the consolation game.

Kariya suffered the loss of his father, T.K., to a heart attack on Friday.

“It was a family decision to have Marty stay and play. And he really inspired us. He is such a strong person. He competed so hard. I can’t say enough good thing about him,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.

Francis Nault, Derek Damon, Lucas Lawson and Chris Heisten had the other Maine goals while James Solon, Josh Hanson and Tim Turner scored for UMass.

Kariya had opened the scoring against UMass by converting a breakaway off a pass from Matt Deschamps, who had just stepped out of the penalty box.

But Solon and Hanson scored 2:38 apart for UMass, their first goals of the season, to supply the Minutemen with the lead. Solon batted the puck out of Doyle’s glove, which was along the ice, and Hanson scored from the slot.

Shaneberger tied it by shoveling home his own rebound and Nault gave Maine the lead for good with a screened power play one-timer from the point.

Kariya, Damon, Lawson and Heisten scored 9:36 apart in the latter stages of the second period to break the game open.

Kariya swept home a Lawson rebound; Damon one-timed a Todd Jackson pass on the power play; Lawson split a pair of UMass defenseman and fired the puck past Gabe Winer and Heisten skated on to a soft pass by Colin Shields and beat Winer with a short one-timer.

Turner and Shaneberger swapped third-period power play goals.

Doyle finished with 18 saves in 21/2 periods before Randolph’s Ray Jean came on and stopped all 12 shots he faced.

Winer and Michael Waidlich combined for 20 saves for UMass.

“I didn’t expect this type of game. I thought it would be a very low-scoring, checking game,” said Whitehead. “I was excited about how we played. We made a lot of very unselfish plays throughout the weekend that set up quality goals. We improved as the tournament went on. We tried to do too much in the first period against UMass. We turned the puck over too much in the neutral zone but we played a lot smarter starting in the second period.”

He added that his defense corps was “very sharp” over the final 40 minutes and the team supported the puck better.

On Saturday, Murray’s second-period power-play goal staked Cornell to a 1-0 lead but Lawson, Liscak and Shaneberger erased the deficit.

Cam Abbott scored with 27 seconds left for Cornell, 30 seconds after Shaneberger had hit the empty net for what proved to be the game-winner.

“This was a huge win,” said Whitehead. “Cornell totally outplayed us in every aspect in the first period except goaltending. We should have been down 3-0 or 4-0. We had a decent second period and built some momentum and we played really well in the third period. It was one of our best periods of the season.”

He said his Bears had to start “competing harder” which they did beginning in the second period.

Lawson was set up nicely by Kariya and fired home his own rebound after Cornell junior goalie Todd Marr stopped his initial shot.

Liscak gave Maine the lead for good with 9:10 remaining.

BLACK BEARS 3, BIG RED 2

(Saturday Night)

Cornell (10-2) 0 1 1 ? 2

Maine (14-1-2) 0 0 3 ? 3

First period ? 1. No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Deschamps, obstruction holding, 9:38; Maine, Deschamps, holding, 19:49.

Second period ? 1. Cornell, Murray 2 (Baby, Vesce), 5:52 (pp); Penalties: Maine, Ryan, charging, 5:16; Cornell, Murray, interference, 7:00; Cornell, Matt McRae, roughing, 9:23; Cornell, Pegoraro, hooking, 12:49.

Third period ? 2. Maine, Lawson 6 (Kariya, Ronan), 3:23; 3. Maine, Liscak 8 (Shaneberger, Barnes), 10:50; 4. Maine, Shaneberger 3 (unassisted), 19:03 (en); 5. Cornell, Ca. Abbott 5 (Iggulden), 19:33. Penalties: none

Shots on goal: Cornell 9-8-10?27; Maine 5-9-11?25

Goaltenders: Cornell, Marr (24 shots-22 saves); Maine, Doyle (27-25)

Power-play opportunities: Cornell 1-3; Maine 0-3

Attendance: 6,697

BLACK BEARS 8, MINUTEMEN 3

(Sunday Night)

UMass (10-7-1) 2 0 1 ? 3

Maine (15-1-2) 3 4 1 ? 8

First period ? 1. Maine, Kariya 6 (Deschamps), 6:11; 2. UMass, Solon 1 (Trovato, Lang), 7:18; 3. UMass, Hanson 1 (MacDonald, Pock), 9:54; 4. Maine, Shaneberger 4 (unassisted), 9:56; 5. Maine, Nault 5 (Liscak, Shields), 11:54 (pp). Penalties: UMass, Pock, tripping, 1:04; Maine, Deschamps, slashing, 4:04; Maine, Liscak, interference, 7:48; Maine, Damon, high sticking, 12:47; UMass, Capraro, holding the stick, 13:15; UMass, Anderson, cross checking, 17:01; UMass, Pock, hitting after the whistle, 19:33.

Second period ? 6. Maine, Kariya 7 (Damon, Jackson), 9:28; 7. Maine, Damon 3 (Jackson, Shaneberger), 12:33 (pp); 8. Maine, Lawson 7 (Kariya), 14:14; 9. Maine, Heisten 10 (Shields), 19:04. Penalties: UMass, Warner, roughing, 1:10; UMass, Degon, interference, 12:19; Maine, Shields, elbowing, 16:31; Maine, Ryan, interference, 19:55.

Third period ? 10. UMass, Turner 10 (Capraro), :16 (pp); 11. Maine, Shaneberger 5 (Jackson, Liscak), 2:51 (pp). Penalties: UMass, Trovato, roughing, 1:41; UMass, Jacobs, roughing, 4:25; UMass, MacDonald, hitting after the whistle, 13:24; Maine, Deschamps, hitting after the whistle, 13:24; Maine, too many men on the ice, 14:40.

Shots on goal: UMass 11-5-17?33; Maine 7-15-6? 28

Goaltenders: UMass, Winer (22 shots-15 saves), Waidlich (0:00 of 3rd, 6-5); Maine, Doyle (21-18), Jean (9:39 of 3rd, 12-12)

Power-play opportunities: UMass 1-6, Maine 3-8

Attendance: 6,004