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ORONO – Freshman center Tony Morrone made his University of Maine men’s hockey debut Wednesday night and capitalized on the opportunity.
Morrone’s goal with 2:31 left in overtime gave the Black Bears a hard-fought 3-2 exhibition win over a talented University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds team.
It was an entertaining high-tempo game between a pair of teams ranked third in their respective national polls.
Lachlan MacIntosh’s goal with 7:28 remaining tied it for the Varsity Reds and forced the overtime. He pounced on the rebound of a Jesse Ferguson point shot following a faceoff win and swatted it past Maine freshman goalie Dave Wilson.
UNB had a pair of dangerous flurries in overtime, but Wilson, making his first start, came up with some timely stops.
After one flurry, the puck squirted out wide to Morrone. He broke solo down the left wing with three Varsity Reds in good defensive position across the ice.
He went wide on UNB defenseman Dustin Friesen, darted to the net front while protecting the puck, and took a quick backhander that beat UNB goalie Michael Ouzas to the short side.
“[Ouzas] was cheating toward the middle of the net. I think he figured I was going to cut across in front,” said Morrone.
Morrone was elated with the turn of events.
“I was definitely surprised. I didn’t expect it to go overtime and I didn’t expect to get the game-winning goal,” said Morrone.
Maine coach Tim Whitehead, who used the game to play several younger players who have seen little or no playing time, was impressed.
“That was a great goal. Tony created something out of nothing,” said Whitehead.
Denny Johnston’s first-period goal stake UNB to a 1-0 lead 11:19 into the game, but Maine’s Teddy Purcell equalized just 1:37 later and Bret Tyler’s power-play goal broke the deadlock with 1:47 remaining in the period.
Johnston opened the scoring when he batted a waist-high rebound past Wilson after the goalie had made successive up-close stops off Nick Marach.
Purcell tied it on the followup of a Brett Carriere shot from the left point. Carriere waited until a screen formed in front and Ouzas kicked out his drive only to have Purcell deposit the rebound in the half-empty net.
Tyler made it 2-1 as the Bears were on the power play and were about to go on a two-man advantage as the resulted of a delayed penalty. Maine got the extra attacker on the ice and kept possession.
Matt Duffy slid the puck over to Tyler at the midpoint and his wrister sailed over the blocker of the screened Ouzas.
Wilson finished with 24 saves, while Ouzas had 16.
Whitehead said Wilson “was the best player on the ice for both teams.”
Wilson finished with 14 saves off Grade-A (high-percentage) shots.
“He played well. He made some big saves for them,” said UNB coach Gardiner MacDougall.
“I was real nervous at the start, but I handled the puck a couple of times and that got me into the flow of things,” said Wilson, who has appeared in three regular-season games totaling 23 minutes, 52 seconds.
“I thought I played well. There were a couple of areas that were weak. I’ve got to work on my rebound control and recovery. The defense was amazing in front of me,” said Wilson.
He added that he felt he had some good moments in which he was able to get himself into position to face second and third shots.
“This certainly helped my confidence,” said Wilson.
Purcell was another bright spot as the freshman scored a goal for the first time in nine games.
Even though the goal doesn’t count in the statistics, Purcell said, “It’s nice to get that little monkey off my back.”
Whitehead had nothing but praise for the Varsity Reds and the tuneup they provided for Saturday night’s game at Northeastern.
UNB coach Gardiner MacDougall was pleased with the way his team played.
“One of our objectives was to do a better job off the puck and we did that,” said MacDougall.
Both teams were without several regulars as Maine’s leading scorer Michel Leveille and UNB top point-producer Rob Hennigar didn’t play. Maine also didn’t use starting goalie Ben Bishop.
BLACK BEARS 2, VARSITY REDS 1
(Exhibition)
New Brunswick (10-5) 1 0 1 0 – 2
Maine (9-3-1) 2 0 0 1 – 3
First period – 1. UNB, Johnston (Marach), 11:19; 2. Maine, Purcell (Carriere), 12:56; 3. Maine, Tyler (Duffy), 18:13; Penalties: UNB, Perry, obstruction interference, 5:07; Maine, Shepheard, high-sticking, 5:19; Maine, Ryan, tripping, 6:29; Maine, Laise, hooking, 8:58; UNB, MacIntosh, tripping, 16:42; UNB, Bowman, slashing, 18:13
Second period – No scoring; Penalties: UNB, Marach, holding, 6:47; Maine, Duffy, holding the stick, 11:10; UNB, Pierce, interference, 14:56
Third period – 4. UNB, MacIntosh (Ferguson), 12:32; Penalties: Maine, Ramsey, interference, 6:09; UNB, Smallman, tripping, 17:20
Overtime – 5. Maine, Morrone (unassisted), 2:29; Penalties: none
Shots on goal: UNB 5-10-12-2-29; Maine 8-6-6-1-21
Goaltenders: UNB, Ouzas (21 shots-18 saves); Maine, Wilson (29-27)
Power-play opportunities: UNB 0 of 5; Maine 1 of 6
High-percentage scoring chances: UNB 9-5-11-1-26; Maine 3-8-2-0-13
Attendance: 5,159
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