AMHERST – No. 16/14 University of Massachusetts hockey held a 2-0 lead after two periods, but No. 5/4 Maine scored twice in the third to end the contest in a 2-2 tie at the Mullins Center on Saturday. The Black Bears (21-7-6, 13-5-6 HE) took the extra point in the Hockey East standings with a shootout win, while the Minutemen finish the regular season at 19-12-5 overall and 10-9-5 in league action.
“I thought we showed really well this weekend against the top-five team in the country,” said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. “I know we gave up a lead in the third there, but we probably could have, should have scored two, three or four goals after they tied the game up. It’s hard to win two games in this league, you know, when you play the same opponent twice, and especially team as good as Maine. I thought our kids, as well as they played last night, I thought they gave a great effort tonight. The Maine goalie, really, he’s one of the top goalies in the league, and he really showed it in this game tonight.”
Sophomore Dans Locmelis put UMass on the board eight minutes into the first. Sophomore Cam O’Neil caused a turnover in the offensive zone and pushed the puck ahead to Locmelis. Locmelis went in alone on goaltender Albin Boija and tucked his shot underneath the netminder for his seventh goal of the season.Freshman
Larry Keenan doubled the Minutemen’s advantage 1:21 into the second period, going bar down from the slot off a feed from Locmelis and sophomore Aydar Suniev along the half wall.
Maine took one of the goals back 5:26 into the third. Frank Djurasevic started a rush up the ice from the defensive zone and Josh Nadeau threaded a pass through a UMass defender to Lucke Antonacci for the finish from point-blank range.
The Black Bears then tied the score at 2-2 with Nicholas Niemo picking off an errant pass and skating in for the finish from the right faceoff dot at 9:47.
After a scoreless overtime period, Niemo and Sully Scholle converted on Maine’s second and third shootout attempts for the 2-0 shootout win.
The Minutemen ended the night with a 42-23 advantage in shots on goal and went 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Black Bears were 0-for-1.
Michael Hrabal totaled 21 saves for UMass, while Boija finished with 40 for Maine.
The Minutemen will begin the Hockey East Tournament this Wednesday, March 12, when the squad will host No. 11 seed Vermont at the Mullins Center at 7 p.m
