ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team clinched eighth place and a berth in the Hockey East playoffs Saturday night after missing them a year ago.
However, for the fifth time this season, the Black Bears squandered a third-period lead as the University of Vermont Catamounts used goals 1:49 apart by Jack Downing and Justin Milo in the last 6:09 to rally past Maine 2-1.
Vermont improved to 19-8-5 overall, 14-7-4 in Hockey East, while Maine fell to 12-18-4 and 7-15-3, respectively. Boston College’s 4-3 overtime win over Providence eliminated the ninth-place Friars.
Maine, which has lost four straight one-goal games and has gone winless in its last six (0-5-1), will finish with a two-game series at UMass Lowell next weekend and then travel to Boston for a best-of-three quarterfinal series against the league’s regular season champion, either Northeastern or Boston University.
Northeastern leads BU by one point with two games left.
The Black Bears are 2-13-3 over their last 18 games and they went 1-6-2 in their last nine home games.
Maine defenseman and co-captain Simon Danis-Pepin, one of four Bears honored during Seniors Night activities, said it “it would have been fun to get a win but, at the same time, we’ve got to put it behind us and get ready for the playoffs.
“We’re getting an opportunity we didn’t get last year,” he noted.
“We did clinch a playoff spot although this isn’t the way we wanted to. But it happens and anything can happen in the playoffs. We’ve got to learn from this and get better,” said sophomore center Tanner House, who broke a scoreless tie 3:37 into the third period.
House roofed the puck from the low slot after Gustav Nyquist brought it out front and he and Brian Flynn had whacks at it.
Maine’s Mike Banwell hit the crossbar moments later.
Downing tied it with 6:09 left when he was set up by Kyle Medvec, who slid a pass to him in the low slot to Maine goalie Dave Wilson’s left.
“I was in close and I knew [Wilson] would want to cover the low part of the net so I put it upstairs,” said Downing, who lifted it over Wilson’s glove.
Milo’s game-winner came off a rush also involving Viktor Stalberg, Brian Roloff.
“I gave the puck to Roloff and I opened up [into shooting position] and he gave it right back to me,” said Milo, whose 17-footer beat Wilson to the short [glove] side.
“I had the middle and the far corner covered. He was wide open and made a great shot,” said Wilson.
Freshman goalie Rob Madore was the other story of the third period.
He made two superb saves off Spencer Abbott snap shots from the left circle just before Downing netted the equalizer.
After Vermont took the lead, he robbed Nyquist twice. He flashed out his glove to snare Nyquist’s one-timer from point-blank range off a Flynn feed and then he absorbed a Nyquist shot from the right circle with his left elbow, body glove hand.
“On the first one, I put it where I wanted but he had a quick glove and made a great save,” said Nyquist. “He got his glove up again on the second one. He has a pretty fast glove.”
“[Madore] was the best player on the ice this weekend. He made some great stops,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead, whose Bears lost to UVM 3-2 on Friday night. “These were frustrating results but, at the same time, I’m proud of how the guys played.”
Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon said his team played “much better” than it did on Friday and he sensed Maine’s “uneasiness” playing with the lead in the third period because he has had young teams in the past that fell victim to the same collapses.
Madore finished with 24 saves including 11 Grade-A (high-percentage) stops while Wilson also turned in a stellar performance with 20 saves including 12 Grade-A’s.
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