Bears upended Wisconsin knocks off UMaine 5-2 in Frozen Four semifinal

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MILWAUKEE – When junior defenseman Mike Lundin scored with 8:31 remaining in regulation to pull the University of Maine within 3-2 in their NCAA Frozen Four semifinal against Wisconsin on Thursday night, Black Bears senior defenseman Steve Mullin said “all hope was renewed” for a dramatic comeback.

“But Wisconsin had other ideas,” said Mullin.

Freshman center Ben Street snapped an 11-game goal-less drought by scoring 57 seconds later to dash Maine’s comeback aspirations and help the Badgers collect a 5-2 triumph at the Bradley Center.

“That fourth goal was a real killer,” said Mullin as the 29-10-3 Badgers advanced to Saturday’s 7 p.m. championship game against 26-11-3 Boston College, a 6-5 winner over North Dakota earlier Thursday.

Junior left wing Robbie Earl’s empty-netter with 1:44 remaining, his second goal of the game, finalized the triumph.

Maine concluded its season at 28-12-2.

Street actually initiated the play that led to his goal by firing a wrist shot from the right circle that required a pad save from Maine freshman goalie Ben Bishop.

Bishop denied Ross Carlson’s rebound attempt with a stick save, but the puck hit the post and squirted over to the unattended Street.

“The thing was laying there for me to put it in. I was coming in too fast, but then I kind of gathered myself and stopped, then got some composure and buried the backhand,” said Street, who lifted it over the helpless Bishop.

Bishop said, “He put it upstairs where he should have.”

Maine junior right wing Keith Johnson said he and linemates Derek Damon and Billy Ryan got trapped in the offensive zone on the Badger rush that produced the goal.

Junior left wing Carlson’s first career shorthanded goal, coming 4 minutes, 18 seconds into the second period, broke a 1-1 tie and gave the Badgers the lead for good.

Earl scored on a power play 3:58 later to extend the lead to 3-1.

Lundin’s third goal of the season was set up by Greg Moore and Josh Soares.

Soares fed the puck to Moore, who spotted the open Lundin cruising down the slot. Lundin took the pass from Moore and roofed a wrist shot over the glove of Wisconsin junior goalie and Hobey Baker Award finalist Brian Elliott.

But Street answered.

Wisconsin’s Adam Burish opened the scoring at the 10:11 mark of the first period, but Michel Leveille tied the game 7:26 later.

Carlson’s go-ahead goal in the second period came after the puck evaded Leveille at the right point.

Carlson busted down the left wing with Bret Tyler in pursuit.

Tyler sliced across to try to cut down the angle but overcommitted. Carlson darted from left to right between the faceoff circles before stopping, putting his head down, and snapping a wrister along the ice that squeezed between Bishop’s pads.

“I thought he was going to take a slap shot. I didn’t think he was going to shoot it [right away] because he had all the time in the world. When he shot it, he surprised me and it went five-hole,” said Bishop.

It was the 12th shorthanded goal allowed by the Bears this season, second most in the nation behind Bowling Green’s 14.

“We give the guys the freedom to make plays under pressure and sometimes it bites us,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.

The shorthanded goal came against the run of play as the Bears had opened the second period with a couple of sustained forechecks leading to scoring opportunities that were turned aside by Elliott.

“That was definitely tough. That got the crowd back into the game,” said Soares.

Earl expanded the lead off a two-on-one, seconds after Elliott was able to get his left shoulder on Moore’s shot off a Maine two-on-one.

The puck popped free and speedster Earl took a pass from two-on-one partner Burish, broke through the slot, and fired a 30-footer that cleanly beat Bishop to the far side over his blocker.

Maine had a glorious opportunity to pull within 3-2 late in the second period when Soares set up Moore for a quick wrister in the circle to Elliott’s left.

Elliott made the save and then scrambled over to his right to deny Damon’s rebound attempt. Damon had to wait a second to control the puck and that gave Elliott enough time to move from post to post.

Burish had scored the game’s first goal when his centering pass went off the blocker of Bishop, deflected into the body of Maine defenseman Travis Wight, and bounced into the net.

Leveille equalized off a two-on-two. He cut right to left between the circles and saw his wrister hit the skate of Matt Olinger and trickle between Elliott’s pads, ending the goalie’s scoreless string at 269 minutes, 52 seconds.

Wisconsin outshot Maine 39-34.

The Badgers snapped Maine’s string of six straight games with a power-play goal (10-for-30) by killing off all seven Bear power plays. Wisconsin went 1-for-6 on the power play to go with the shorthanded goal.

Wisconsin has killed off all 32 of its power-play disadvantages during the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and NCAA tournaments.

“Our forwards are doing an awesome job on the penalty kill, throwing a monkey wrench in their breakout. It’s something we’ve been doing so well lately,” said Wisconsin senior defenseman and captain Tom Gilbert.

“They pressured the points on our power play, and they did a good job down low,” said Leveille, who praised the Badgers.

“You’ve got to give them credit. They buried their chances. They’re a pretty good team,” said Leveille.

Maine junior left wing Mike Hamilton said the Bears gave it their best shot, but Wisconsin was “a few goals better than us tonight.”

Elliott said Maine was a good team and pointed out that the Badgers rarely give up 34 shots on goal like they did Thursday. Opponents had averaged 25.3 shots per game.

“The guys did a good job blocking shots. Everybody was putting their bodies on the line,” said Elliott.

Maine attempted 64 shots to Wisconsin’s 61, but the Badgers blocked 19 of them. Maine blocked 11 Badger shots.