BOSTON — The University of Maine men’s hockey team, mired in a six-game losing streak and winless in eight (0-7-1) entering Friday night’s Hockey East quarterfinal series opener, turned in one of their best performances of the season against the nation’s top-ranked team, the Boston University Terriers.
But the Black Bears gave the nation’s top-ranked power-play team a two-man advantage with 4:01 remaining and the Terriers made them pay as Colby Cohen’s one-timer with 2:56 remaining gave the top-seeded Terriers a 2-1 win over the eighth-seeded Black Bears at Agganis Arena.
BU, now 28-5-4 and unbeaten in its last 17 (14-0-3), can end the series tonight at 7:30. If 12-21-4 Maine prevails, a deciding game will be played Sunday at 7.
“I was very, very impressed with Maine,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “They played great. They did a fabulous job killing penalties and did a fabulous job in front of their net. They didn’t make us look like the No. 1 team in the nation. They made us look very vulnerable.
“They played with more emotion and more intensity.”
Maine coach Tim Whitehead was pleased with his team’s performance.
“We aren’t quitting,” said Whitehead. “The difference tonight was they had more looks on the power play and they capitalized.”
BU went 1-for-8 on the power play while Maine went 1-for-3.
“We didn’t touch anybody tonight,” said a disappointed Parker in explaining the disparity in penalties. “When you play physical, you get more penalties. But I’d rather that we play more physical.”
Maine took a 1-0 lead on Tanner House’s power-play goal with 23 seconds left in the first period.
House had landed two hits on the game’s first shift to set the tone for the game as Maine was the more physical of the two teams.
“It was important to play physical. In a three-game series, you want to take the body to wear down their defensemen,” said House.
BU sophomore defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk equalized at the 9:01 mark of the second period.
Both teams had glorious chances to take the lead but Maine freshman goalie Scott Darling and BU freshman Kieran Millan were both sharp and came up with timely saves while their mates did an effective job limiting the opponents’ rebound opportunities.
Maine’s Robby Dee was whistled for boarding with 4:54 remaining and Jeff Dimmen was called for hooking Colin Wilson 53 seconds later.
Cohen scored with three seconds left in the two-man advantage as Wilson wheeled away from traffic in the right corner and slid a pass along the ice to him.
“[Wilson] did all the work. Goalies in that situation have been overcommiting [to the near post] so I tried to go far side low or high,” said Cohen, whose blast beat Darling to the far corner.
Darling had scrambled across but had no chance to dart back against the grain.
Maine had a great chance to equalize with 11.5 seconds left when the Bears manufactured a three-on-one and Will O’Neill made a perfect diagonal pass to Gustav Nyquist in the right circle.
But Millan hustled across and made the save against his body on Nyquist’s one-timer.
“It was a great pass by O’Neill. [Millan] made a good save. He trapped it between his arm and his body,” said Nyquist.
“We had three players leave the [defensive] zone to try to score an empty-net goal and one of our defensemen lost his stick,” said an irritated Parker. “That was a fabulous save.”
House had opened the scoring when Dee won a faceoff to O’Neill and he fed it to Matt Duffy at the midpoint. Duffy’s snap shot deflected in off House’s thigh.
“I’ve got the bruise to show for it,” said House whose goal was his fourth in four games.
BU tied it up when Wilson fought off a check behind the net and tried to slide a pass to Jason Lawrence in the low slot.
The puck skipped past Lawrence to Shattenkirk in the high slot and his wrister beat Darling over his blocker into the far corner.
“We stuck to our systems. We kept them to the outside and we got the puck deep,” said House. “But those penalties at the end cost us.”
BU had two good chances to break the tie early in the third period but Darling kicked out a Matt Gilroy one-timer and then quickly shifted over to get his pad on Brandon Yip’s rebound.
Maine had a wild flurry a few minutes later but Millan stopped Mike Banwell’s point shot and Dee’s rebound from in tight.
O’Neill had time to tee up a slap shot from the top of the left circle with 7:42 remaining but a screened Millan closed his pads to make the stop.
“I was very proud of the way we played,” said Nyquist.
BU has now gone 11-0-2 in its last 13 meetings with Maine and has never lost to the Bears at the Agganis Arena (6-0-1).
Darling finished with 23 saves including 11 Grade-A (high-percentage) stops. Millan wound up with 20 saves with eight being of the Grade-A variety.
Both goalies turned in exceptional performances.
Parker praised Wilson, saying he was one of few Terriers who played with determination and intensity.
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