Two late surges by 18th-ranked Notre Dame University led to two different outcomes for the University of Maine men’s hockey team this past weekend.
The Black Bears survived the Irish’s late push in Friday night’s game before falling victim to it the following evening to secure the weekend split.
UMaine is 13-10-2, 7-5-2 in Hockey East after securing their first road win of the year. The Black Bears, 1-9-2 in true road contests this season, now find themselves in a tie for fourth place in the conference with rival University of New Hampshire. They host Merrimack College for another two-game set Feb. 14-15.
Notre Dame moves to 16-12-1, 5-9-1 in Hockey East after Saturday night’s win snapped a three-game skid. The Irish, 13-5-1 at home in 2013-14, are locked in an eighth-place tie with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with five games left to play in the regular season. They travel to Rhode Island to take on Providence College for a pair of games Feb. 14-15.
Ouellette, controversy aid Black Bears to first road win
The Black Bears hadn’t won a road game since a 4-3 victory over rival UNH on March 8 of last season. The Black Bears needed 36 saves from senior netminder Martin Ouellette and some help from the officiating crew to break that road winless streak when they squeaked by the No. 18 Irish 2-1 at a sold-out Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend, Ind. Friday night.
The Irish appeared to knot the score at 2-2 with less than 30 seconds left in regulation, but senior left wing Jeff Costello’s potential game-tying goal was called back after a video review by the referees determined he had pushed Ouellette into the net with the puck covered up.
Costello had put life back into Notre Dame’s chances less than a minute earlier with his ninth goal of the season that got the Irish on the scoreboard with senior goaltender Steven Summerhays pulled in favor of the extra attacker. His 10th goal of the year would have likely sent the game to overtime had it not been nullified.
UMaine junior forward Connor Leen began the scoring with his fourth goal of the year just 59 seconds after puck drop before sophomore forward Steven Swavely produced the eventual deciding goal with 6:39 left in the final period. Swavely’s eighth goal of the season comes in his first game back after suffering a knee injury that had kept him out the past four games.
Leen’s goal came off a feed from freshman forward Josh Henke after he had won the puck behind the net. Leen collected the puck in the middle of the slot, took a stride and wired one past Summerhays’ glove to break the scoreless drought. Freshman forward Cam Brown also earned a helper on the play.
The Irish nearly tied it on a number of occasions later in the period and in the middle stanza, but Ouellette stayed strong between the pipes, denying junior left wing Austin Wuthrich’s shot from the left circle with the glove before stuffing senior right wing Michael Voran’s point-blank attempt late in the second.
Summerhays, who leads the nation in shutouts with five, finished with 29 saves on 31 shots in the loss.
Swavely’s eventual game-winner came despite heavy possession from Notre Dame throughout the final period.
The sophomore was credited with the tally after deflecting senior defenseman Brice O’Connor’s wrist shot from the right point past Summerhays to put UMaine up 2-0. Sophomore defenseman Ben Hutton earned the secondary assist.
The Irish pulled Summerhays in the final minutes, leading to Costello’s rebound goal following freshman center Vince Hinostroza’s shot that created a huge scrum in front of Ouellette. A similar play led to Costello’s would-be game-tying goal before it was called back.
This was the third straight loss for the Irish.
They outshot the Black Bears 37-31.
The two teams combined to go 0-5 on the power play Friday night.
Rust pots two in closing moments, leads Irish to 3-2 comeback win
The Fighting Irish put together yet another last-ditch effort in the closing moments against the Black Bears Saturday night, but this time, they came away with two crucial points.
Summerhays was pulled again with 80 seconds left in the game in favor of the extra skater, leading to two goals by senior right wing Bryan Rust in the final 1:08 to cap another wild finish between these two Hockey East foes.
Rust wasted no time with the 6-5 advantage, wristing one past Ouellette from the high slot to tie the game at 2-2 with his 10th goal of the season, with assists going to senior center T.J. Tynan and senior defenseman Shayne Taker.
His 11th came with Summerhays back in net on a rush through the neutral zone. He took a pass from senior defenseman Stephen Johns and gained the blue line before wristing one by Ouellette from the tops of the faceoff circles for the eventual game-winner with 43.6 seconds left in regulation.
Ouellette performed phenomenally once again, racking up 39 stops on 42 shots. The senior turned aside 76 of the 80 shots he faced over the weekend to earn the two-game split.Summerhays produced 20 saves in the victory for Notre Dame.
Brown got the Black Bears on the board first with just over eight minutes remaining in the first period. He managed to jam one inside the right post after beating Summerhays behind the net. Junior defenseman Jake Rutt and Henke earned the assists.
The Irish would tie it at 1-1 on the power play five minutes later with Tynan’s seventh tally of the year. Hinostroza worked the puck off the left-side boards before finding sophomore left wing Mario Lucia below the goal line. He fed Tynan in the slot where he could roof it past Ouellette to knot the score.
Hutton would net his 10th of the season on a 5-on-3 power play on a bad angle shot to the left of Summerhays midway through the second period. The goal, assisted by O’Connor and sophomore forward Devin Shore, marked Hutton’s sixth power play tally of the year, the most of any defenseman in the nation. He is now the 17th Black Bear defenseman in program history with 10 or more goals in a season.
Notre Dame was able to prevent a UMaine equalizer in the closing seconds following Rust’s tallies to secure the 3-2 win.
The Irish outshot the Black Bears 42-22 Saturday night. UMaine finished 1-3 on the power play while Notre Dame went 1-6 with the extra skater.