Maine puts Wisconsin on ice Black Bears win in overtime to advance to Frozen Four

ALBANY, N.Y. – It’s the top-ranked team in the country, the reigning Hockey East champion, and the first program to have its ticket to the Frozen Four punched.

You wouldn’t know it by watching these guys, however, because nothing came easy for this University of Maine men’s hockey team during its 2-1 overtime victory over Wisconsin in Saturday night’s NCAA East Regional final.

Even the Black Bears’ celebration had to be cut short, put on hold, and then resumed after an agonizing five-minute wait as replay officials reviewed Maine’s game-winning goal.

A palpable blend of nervous anticipation and lingering hope rendered Pepsi Arena nearly silent as fans, players, and coaches waited to see if Mike Hamilton’s goal three minutes, 27 seconds into overtime would stand up to review.

Only after the replay official gave his blessing were the blue-and-white clad members of Maine hockey nation able to celebrate the Bears’ victory. Whew, yet another pulse-pounding, cranium-throbbing, knuckle-whitening day for the Bears.

Maine advances to the Frozen Four at the Fleet Center in Boston where it plays Hockey East rival Boston College on Thursday, April 8.

A day after staging what may have been the most remarkable postseason comeback in Maine hockey history with four goals in the third period against Harvard, Maine again had to do it the hard way. A week after playing the fourth-longest NCAA hockey game in history and winning in triple overtime against Massachusetts, the Bears had to gut it out in overtime and overcome a 37-28 shot deficit against Wisconsin.

Not even head coach Tim Whitehead can explain his team’s predilection for danger and ability to escape it.

“I don’t know. It could be partly due to the personalities on the team,” he said with a nervous laugh. “We do seem to elevate our game a little when our backs are against the wall. It’s a good quality, but it’s a little nerve-wracking for the coaches.”

So is watching from the bench as your team goes 0-for-7 on power-play opportunities on Saturday to make it 2-for-31 over the last six games.

“Imagine if we get the power play going, we’ll be pretty good,” Whitehead said with a chuckle. “It has been a little frustrating. I know the players are probably tired of Campbell [Blair] and I barking at them to shoot the puck and keep it simple and move it quick. We’re pretty good at practice. I guess that’s the best thing I can tell you, but when it gets in the game, for some reason we’re a smidgen off.”

Until the Bears find themselves in a trap. Then they manage to find the “on” switch.

“I definitely think our team has a lot of character,” said senior right wing Colin Shields. “We don’t rely on any certain guys to score all the time, so it’s one of those things where we seem to get ourselves in these positions, down a goal or three or four, and we seem to always get ourselves out of there.

“With all the adversity we’ve had with the losses and everything that’s happened, it’s not a big deal when we get down. We know we can battle back,” he added.

Shields personifies this Maine team’s character. They’re not lacking respect, but it doesn’t come easily. Maine’s leading point scorer had to have his name card turned around to the blank side in Friday’s postgame news conference after teammate Todd Jackson’s name was accidentally typed on it. Saturday night, he turned his card around jokingly only to find his first name was misspelled (Colon instead of Colin).

Even goaltender Jimmy Howard, who followed up a Hockey East MVP performance last week by turning aside 65 of the 70 shots he faced in the two regional victories this weekend, was dealt an ego blow when he was passed over for all-regional goalie honors by Wisconsin’s Bernd Bruckler, who also was picked as the regional MVP.

“I’ll take that tradeoff any day. He’s going home with a trophy, and I’m going to play in Boston,” Howard said. “It’s definitely an awesome feeling when you get picked for something like that, but when you don’t and your team’s moving on, I mean … who cares? Your season’s extended, and they came up short.”

Even sleep comes uneasily to these Bears. Howard and most of his teammates were abruptly awakened early Saturday by their hotel’s fire alarm.

“I slept like a baby [Friday] night,” said Howard, who celebrated his 20th birthday Friday after getting lifted from the game in the second intermission.

Whitehead described his team’s unique approach to winning before boarding the team bus after Saturday’s game.

“I think we’re like a prizefighter where we’ll take our punches and absorb some punishment, but keep staying with it,” said Whitehead. “Then by the end of the game, the other team’s like ‘Hey, I think we lost.'”