Maine, St. Cloud play to 1-1 tie in OT Huskies win shootout, advance

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ESTERO, Fla. – The University of Maine men’s hockey team continues to be stingy defensively but its recent scoring difficulties also continued Tuesday night.

The Bears fought to a 1-1 tie with St. Cloud State in the Everblades College Classic at Germain Arena but the Huskies advanced to the championship game by winning the shootout, 2-1, on sophomore defenseman Justin Fletcher’s goal.

St. Cloud State sophomore defenseman Grant Clafton and Maine freshman left wing Billy Ryan exchanged second-period goals but neither team was able to produce a game-winner so, after a five-minute overtime, the game went to a shootout.

Under NCAA guidelines, both teams will receive a tie on their record.

Maine, which has been held to one goal or less in three of its last five games and to two goals in another, goes to 10-7-3 and St. Cloud is now 8-9-2.

Maine plays the loser of Tuesday’s Boston College-Cornell game at 4 p.m. Wednesday and St. Cloud will face the winner at 7:30.

The first shootout segment featured five shooters apiece and Ryan gave Maine a 1-0 lead when he converted with Maine’s third shot.

When Maine junior goalie Jimmy Howard stopped Andrew Gordon, the Huskies’ fourth shooter, John Ronan had an opportunity to win it but St. Cloud State sophomore goalie Tim Boron stopped him.

Clafton then tied the game up with their last attempt and Boron forced sudden death by poke-checking the puck away from Troy Barnes.

Howard saved a Clafton shot in sudden death but Ryan missed out on his chance to win it when Boron rejected his shot.

Fletcher went to the backhand and patiently flipped it past Howard to give St. Cloud State a lead and Boron ended it by making a pad save off Ronan.

“I read the play and tried to make a pad stop but he made a nice shot over my glove,” said Howard.

Ronan said he saw some room high to the glove side in his attempt to extend the shootout “but I didn’t get it up enough and it hit his pad.”

Clafton opened the scoring with his third goal of the season. All three have come on the power play.

The puck deflected to him off a skate and he deposited it into the half-empty net past a helpless Howard.

But Ryan answered shortly afterward as he converted on a breakaway off a Mike Lundin pass to snap a 10-game goal-scoring drought.

It was his third of the season.

Both goalies were tested in the third period but both came up with critical stops to keep the game tied.

Boron finished with 32 saves and Howard ended with 29.

“I was definitely happy with the way I played,” said Howard, who has now allowed only seven goals in his last five games and has a sparkling .948 save percentage over that span. “But a lot of it was the guys. They did well. I was able to see most of the shots.”

Howard also praised Boron, who was the WCHA’s Defensive Player of the Week earlier this month.

“We had a lot of chances to capitalize but their goalie came up big,” said Howard.

Howard and Ronan both felt the team played well.

“I was happy with the effort. We certainly worked hard. Overall, I thought we played well,” said co-captain Ronan. “Jimmy was exceptional and their goalie played really well, too.”

Ronan said the Bears have to continue to get a lot of shots on net and “shoot at an area where we can get rebounds. We need second and third efforts. We’ve got to pay the price in front of the net. We’ve got to get some ugly ones.”

He said they can salvage a productive weekend with a win on Wednesday against a nationally-ranked opponent.

“To get three points down here would be a pretty good weekend for us. It’s one of the better tournaments in the country,” said Ronan.

HUSKIES 1, BLACK BEARS 1 (OT)

St. Cloud State (8-9-2) 0 1 0 0 – 1

Maine (10-7-3) 0 1 0 0 – 1

First period – No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Shepheard, obstruction-interference, 4:36; Maine, Shepheard, hooking, 11:19; Maine, Jankus, hitting after the whistle, 12:23; SCS, Szabo, roughing and hitting after the whistle, 12:23; Maine, Shepheard, elbowing, 13:23; SCS, Clafton, holding, 14:54; SCS, Anderson, obstruction-holding, 15:10

Second period – 1. SCS, Clafton 3 (Jensen, Gordon), 13:32 (pp); 2. Maine, Ryan 3 (Lundin, Barnes), 16:01. Penalties: SCS, Szabo, obstruction-hooking, 4:34; Maine, Hamilton, slashing, 12:16; Maine, Tyler, roughing, 14:49; SCS, Singer, roughing, 14:49; SCS, Jensen, obstruction-interference, 16:24

Third period – No scoring. Penalties: SCS, Szabo, hooking, :45; Maine, Moore, slashing, 7:50; SCS, Doyle, hitting after the whistle, 18:46; Maine, Shepheard, hitting after the whistle, 18:46; Maine, Mushaluk, cross-checking, 18:46

Overtime – No scoring. Penalties: none.

Shootout scorers: St. Cloud, Clafton, Fletcher; Maine, Ryan

Shots on goal: SCS 7-10-5-3-25; Maine 11-12-4-0-27

Goaltenders: SCS, Boron (27 shots-26 saves), Maine, Howard (25-24)

Power-play opportunities: SCS 1 of 6, Maine 0 of 6