MINNEAPOLIS – An exhausted and distraught Jon Jankus sat on a bench in the University of Maine locker room at the University of Minnesota’s Mariucci Arena with his right leg propped up and his head resting on his right hand.

Junior goalie Jimmy Howard walked over to him, gave him a warm hug, and whispered “I still love you.”

Howard had turned in yet another memorable goaltending exhibition in Maine’s 1-0 overtime loss to Minnesota in Saturday afternoon’s first-round NCAA Tournament men’s hockey game, but a Jankus mistake contributed to freshman center Evan Kaufmann’s game-winner 1:46 into the OT.

Maine, the fourth seed, finished with a 20-13-7 record. It was the 12th time this season the offensively inconsistent Bears were held to fewer than two goals.

“It was the story of our year. We couldn’t find a way to win those close games,” said Maine sophomore defenseman Mike Lundin, referring to Maine’s 4-9 record in one-goal games. “We just couldn’t get that goal we needed today.”

Howard was helpless on the goal as Jankus had left Kaufmann alone in the low slot to try to block Garrett Smaagaard’s centering pass from behind the net. Smaagaard had maneuvered around Lundin along the boards and created a passing lane.

“Jimmy was outstanding. It was just a bad mistake by me,” said Jankus. “It was a fault of mine to try to anticipate. He [Smaagaard] had a step on Mike and I tried to close him down. I doubled down on him. I tried to get down and block it. Somehow he found a way to thread it through and it ended up in the back of the net. I thought I had a step on him, but he got the puck out really quickly. I left my man and he put it in the net.”

Smaagaard said he put the pass “through his legs or his stick.”

“I beat their guy [Lundin] behind the net. I wasn’t really free, but the guy [Jankus] left the front of the net wide open, so I just had to feather a pass out there,” he added. “Evan got everything on it and it went in the back of the net.”

Kaufmann said, “I really just fired it. We’d been shooting at his glove all game and I was talking to [backup goalie] Justin Johnson during one of the TV timeouts and he said, ‘If we’re going to score on this guy, it’s going to have to be somewhere other than his glove.’ So I aimed blocker side and just ripped it.”

Howard said Kaufmann’s 12-footer “was off his stick before I was able to react. It was a good shot by him. It went right over the right pad where it’s tough to reach.”

Andy Sertich also picked up an assist on the goal.

Howard finished with 37 saves, including 15 of the Grade-A (high-percentage) variety. Minnesota sophomore netminder Kellen Briggs was also sharp, stopping 25 shots for his fourth shutout of the season and eighth of his career. He made 12 Grade-A stops.

The Bears turned in an impressive defensive performance but, again, their inability to put the puck in the net cost them dearly.

Since winning their last NCAA championship in 1999, Maine has managed to score only five goals in its six NCAA Tournament game losses. Maine has been held to one goal or fewer five times and been shut out three times, including last year’s 1-0 setback to Denver in the NCAA title game.

The Bears scored only one goal over 150 minutes, 55 seconds in their last two games of this season, including a current drought of 125:46.

“It’s so frustrating,” said Maine junior center Derek Damon. “We have so many offensive guys on this team that can get it done, but we just didn’t get it done today. Hats off to their goalie, he made some key saves when he had to.”

Two of Maine’s best chances came four minutes apart in the second period.

Jankus beat Briggs to the blocker side with a rising 30-foot wrister only to have it glance off the post.

Moments later, Michel Leveille fed a pass from the side of the net to an unchecked Josh Soares just beyond the top of the crease, but he fired it high.

“The puck was bouncing when he passed it and it got stuck on the blade of my stick,” said Soares. “Ninety-nine times out of a 100, I’d put that puck in the net.”

In the overtime, Leveille placed a nice soft pass from behind the net into the path of the oncoming Greg Moore, but Moore’s 25-foot blast was blocked by Gopher defenseman Chris Harrington.

“He slid out at the last second and got a piece of it,” said Moore.

Steve Mullin’s followup attempt from the high slot was also blocked.

Maine’s offensive flow was short-circuited by nine Minnesota power plays – Maine had four – but the Bears killed off all nine to end the season with a school-record 88 percent efficiency rate on the penalty kill.

The Bears limited Minnesota to 13 shots on the power play.

Minnesota entered the game with the nation’s ninth-best power-play percentage (21.6 percent), but Maine’s penalty killing percentage was third best. The Gophers were without two key power-play components in leading scorer Tyler Hirsch (personal reasons) and defenseman Alex Goligoski (broken hand).

The swift-skating, skillful, and offensive-minded Gophers, the fifth highest-scoring team in the nation at 3.66 goals per game entering Saturday’s game, were limited to fewer than two goals in a game for just the fifth time this season.

Maine was the nation’s fifth-stingiest team, allowing two goals per game.

“They’re an outstanding team,” said Smaagaard, who felt Maine was much better than a typical fourth seed. “I don’t know how that [seeding] really worked out. They played great, their goalie played great, and they could have won just as easily as we did.”

Howard said he was happy with the way the team performed.

“The guys did a tremendous job in front of me. They blocked out, they cleared out rebounds. They made me look good. They made my job easy back there,” he said.

The Bears blocked 24 shots in front of Howard.

Minnesota had a glorious chance to win the game on the power play with two minutes left in regulation when Danny Irmen set up Derek Peltier on a 2-on-1 with a precise pass across to the right circle. But Howard read it perfectly and snared the one-timer with his glove about two feet off the ice.

One of his first saves of the game was equally superb as went into a split to rob sophomore defenseman Mike Vannelli, who stickhandled around Keenan Hopson and scooted down the slot unmolested before trying to make a couple of fakes on Howard.

In the third period, Vannelli hit the post with a screened shot from the point.

Minnesota has won the last two NCAA overtime games against Maine with the previous one (4-3) coming in the 2002 NCAA championship game in St. Paul, Minn.

GOLDEN GOPHERS 1, MAINE 0 (OT)

Maine (20-13-7) 0 0 0 0 – 0

Minnesota (27-14-1) 0 0 0 1 – 1

First period – No scoring. Penalties: Minn, Harrington, hit after whistle, 0:21; Maine, Shepheard, hit after whistle, 0:21; Minn, Vannelli, hooking, 7:23; Maine, Johnson, interference, 11:51; Maine, Damon, hooking, 16:34

Second period – No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Zabkowicz, holding, 1:25; Maine, Murphy, tripping, 4:11; Minn, Hagemo, holding, 9:28; Minn, Smaagaard, tripping, 12:39; Maine, Tyler, tripping, 13:42; Maine, Ramsey, tripping, 16:11

Third period – No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Murphy, hooking, 6:17; Minn., Guyer, high sticking, 8:51; Maine, Johnson, checking from behind, 12:30; Maine, Mullin, holding, 16:49

Overtime – 1. Minn, Kaufmann 1 (Smaagaar, Sertich), 1:46

Shots on goal: Maine 11-9-5-0-25; Minnesota 11-17-9-1-38

Goaltenders: Maine, Howard (38 shots-37 saves); Minnesota, Briggs (25-25)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 0 of 4; Minnesota 0 of 9

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 11-9-5-0-25; Minnesota 6-11-7-1-25