ORONO – The University of Maine men’s hockey team found itself in a “must-win” situation Saturday night against surging Northeastern University.

And it was a veteran defenseman and freshman right winger who provided that much-needed triumph as Bret Tyler fed an unattended Teddy Purcell at the far post to give the Black Bears a 2-1 overtime win.

Maine, which had lost four of its last five and its last three home games, improved to 16-7-2 overall, 9-7-1 in Hockey East. The Bears are in sixth place in the league and eight of their last 10 games are against teams ahead of them in the standings.

Northeastern, which had soundly beaten Maine 6-1 Friday night, fell to 9-12-4 and 6-9-4, respectively.

Northeastern had won three straight and had gone 5-1-2 in its previous eight games.

“Our backs were against the wall. We called it ‘our season,'” said Purcell, who had gone five games without a goal and admitted he had been “holding the stick pretty tight and was getting a little nervous” about it.

“We had to get the momentum back on our home ice. The fans have stuck with us the whole time and we wanted to get this one for them,” he added.

Purcell’s 13th goal came with only 43 seconds remaining in overtime. Tyler was the architect after he came off the bench and gained control of the puck at the left point.

“I faked a shot and stepped aside and one of their guys went right by me,” said Tyler. “I came down the slot and Teddy was wide open. He did a great job getting to the net. Someone else must have been driving the net, too, because their defenseman wasn’t really there. The passing lane opened up, I got it to him, and Teddy put it in the net.”

Purcell added, “Anyone could have scored that goal. I had cycled the puck and gone to the net and their defenseman didn’t pick me up. Bret has great vision and he put it on my stick. I had the empty net.”

Northeastern goalie Brad Thiessen said he expected Tyler to shoot.

“I took a little peek and saw Purcell [at the far post]. I’d like to have anticipated that a little quicker, but it was a nice play,” said Thiessen.

NU coach Greg Cronin, a former Maine interim head coach and assistant, said Tyler “made a great play and we made a dumb play. You can’t leave the front of your net wide open in overtime. It was mind-numbing. We wasted a hell of a game by Thiessen.”

Thiessen made 31 saves and forced the overtime by coming out and smothering Purcell’s open wrister from the low slot with 12 seconds left in regulation.

The puck had deflected over to the unchecked Purcell at the base of the left circle.

Northeastern had the better of the play in the first period despite having to kill three penalties to Maine’s one. The Huskies took a deserved 1-0 lead on freshman right wing Chad Costello’s fourth goal in four games.

It came off a three-on-one as Kyle Kraemer left a perfect drop pass for him and he cut quickly across the low slot and tucked it into the short side before Maine goalie Ben Bishop could scramble across.

Billy Ryan equalized with a deflection off a Tyler one-timer on the power play with 1:19 remaining in the second period. Maine had failed to convert on its previous 22 power-play opportunities, including its first five Saturday night.

Maine outshot NU 17-4 in the second period as the Huskies gave the Bears three more power-play chances while Maine stayed out of the box.

“Because of the penalties, we couldn’t re-energize. You can’t get into a rhythm sitting in the box,” said Cronin, who was particularly perturbed at Jacques Perreault’s “dumb” penalty for punching Michel Leveille in the mask, which led to the Maine goal.

Ryan made them pay when he came out of the corner to Thiessen’s left and tipped Tyler’s shot past Thiessen.

“Bret has a quick release. I came out of the corner and went to the net and I deflected it blocker side, short side,” said Ryan. “[Thiessen] was more in the middle of the net.”

Maine had the better of the chances in the third period, but Thiessen made a quality save on Mike Hamilton, who sliced across the top of the crease, and then Thiessen made his gem on Purcell at the end of regulation.

Bishop was sharp and finished with 16 saves.

Keenan Hopson assisted on both goals.

Maine attempted 66 shots to Northeastern’s 28.

“I was very pleased [with the win],” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “We took a step in the right direction in the first period. Despite trailing 1-0, we limited their quality chances in comparison to the previous game.

“We took a bigger step in the second period and continued to build on that in the third period and overtime. We continued to gain confidence.”

BLACK BEARS 2, HUSKIES 1 (OT)

Northeastern (9-12-4) 1 0 0 0 – 1

Maine (16-7-2) 0 1 0 1 – 2

First period – 1. NU, Costello 10 (Kraemer, Morris), 17:38. Penalties: NU, Driscoll, holding, 1:37; Maine, Carriere, high-sticking, 4:47; NU, Morris, obstruction-interference, 12:40; NU, Russo, interference, 17:49.

Second period – 2. Maine, Ryan 7 (Tyler, Hopson), 18:41 (pp). Penalties: NU, Liotti, cross-checking, 8:32; NU, Rassey, tripping, 11:44; NU, Perreault, contact to head-roughing, 17:25.

Third period – No scoring. Penalties: Maine, Lundin, tripping, 3:04; Maine, Hamilton, roughing, 6:41; NU, Morris, roughing, 6:41; NU, Birnstill, tripping, 7:30; Maine, Shepheard, tripping, 13:15.

Overtime – 3. Maine, Purcell 13 (Tyler, Hopson), 4:17. Penalties: none.

Shots on goal: NU 7-4-6-0-17; Maine 5-17-9-2-33

Goaltenders: NU, Thiessen (33 shots-31 saves), Maine, Bishop (17-16)

Power-play opportunities: NU 0 of 3, Maine 1 of 7

High-percentage scoring chances: NU 5-5-2-0-12; Maine 5-9-7-1-22

Attendance: 5,280