ORONO, Maine — Good teams have to find different ways to win games.
The impressive and hard-working University of Alabama-Huntsville, just 2-24-1 entering Friday night’s game against the torrid University of Maine, had the Black Bears on the ropes with a well-deserved 3-0 lead after two periods.
But the Black Bears used three third-period goals to force overtime, getting the tying goal from Spencer Abbott with just 45.5 seconds left in regulation. Abbott then fed freshman center Stu Higgins for the game-winner 59 seconds into overtime as Maine triumphed 4-3 at Alfond Arena.
Maine, ranked 15th in the country, extended its winning streak to five games and its unbeaten skein to six. Maine is now 15-8-3.
The teams play again at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Alabama-Huntsville received some important first-period saves from sophomore goalie Clarke Saunders and then used a clinically efficient second-period performance to build its 3-0 lead.
Linemates Kyle Lysaght, Mac Roy and Justin Cseter accounted for the Charger goals as Lysaght scored in the first period before Roy and Cseter scored 2:55 apart in the second period.
But Matt Mangene sliced the lead on the power play 2:07 into the third period when Abbott’s one-timer from the right point off a Will O’Neill feed deflected in off his leg.
That extended Maine’s streak with at least one power-play goal to 18 games.
Freshman Andrew Cerretani notched his first collegiate point when he jammed an O’Neill rebound behind Saunders at the 9:34 mark.
But the Chargers protected the lead until the Bears lifted goalie Dan Sullivan in favor of the extra attacker.
Mark Anthoine and Brian Flynn won a puck battle in the corner and Anthoine passed it to Mangene at the point.
“Matt’s shot hit me in the leg. The puck dropped down and I just turned and shot it,” said Abbott, who had Saunders right behind him and was able to roof it into the short side corner from the right circle.
Sullivan came up with a crucial save seconds later to send the game into overtime when he squared himself at the top of the crease and robbed Roy, who had freed himself momentarily from Maine defenseman Mark Nemec and took a wrister from the middle of the slot.
Abbott set up Higgins’ game-winner as he masterfully controlled the puck behind the net, cutting back and forth, and then fed the open Higgins in the low slot.
Higgins scored with his third shot.
“[Saunders] came way out on me and made the first save. I got it back and the second shot was blocked. I got a lucky bounce, it came back to me again and I put it in,” said Higgins.
UAH coach Chris Luongo said his team worked hard but also said they had an opportunity to make defensive plays on the tying goal and overtime winner but weren’t able to do so.
“On the tying goal, we won the faceoff,” pointed out Luongo. “On the game-winner, we didn’t pressure [Abbott] as much as we needed to and our wingers didn’t collapse [to cover Higgins].”
Higgins said after the second period, Whitehead told the team there were players that hadn’t registered a hit through the first two periods.
“We hadn’t been gritty enough,” said Higgins.
“We dodged a bullet tonight,” said Whitehead, whose team outshot the Chargers 14-2 in the third period and 3-0 in overtime to finish with a 38-11 edge for the game.
Lysaght scored the only goal of the first period before Roy and Cseter added second-period goals 2:55 apart. They combined for four assists to go with their three goals.
Alabama-Huntsville managed just three shots on goal compared to Maine’s 15 in the first period, but the Chargers spent 8:49 on the penalty kill and shut out the nation’s second-best power play.
Saunders made eight Grade-A (high-percentage) saves among his 15.
Lysaght gave the Chargers a 1-0 lead at the 11:29 mark of the first period when he swooped on a pass from Cseter, sliced from right to left across the slot, pulled the puck around Sullivan and flipped it into the open net.
Roy made it 2-0 directly off a face-off as he was allowed to make his way unattended to the middle of the slot and he roofed a 15-foot wrister over Sullivan’s blocker.
Cseter extended the lead when he took a pass from Lysaght and muscled his way past a Maine defenseman before tucking the puck between Sullivan’s left skate and the post.
“It’s hard to keep a team with that many weapons down,” said Luongo.
“This showed what kind of character this team has,” said Abbott, who had two assists to go with his goal. “[UAH] played real well. They deserved a better fate.”
“The guys gave it all they had,” said Luongo.
Sullivan had five Grade-A saves among his eight, while Saunders finished with 19 among his 34.
Love Timmy’s deflection of the comment on what he said to the team when on the 2nd intermission to motivate them for the 3rd, his resonse “Bobby got in there and barked at them”, isn’t that the head coaches job? Oh wait, Corkum IS the head coach….
I think the score would be a motivating factor by itself. You know, when the Red Sox were down three games-to-none to the Yankees in 2004, nobody on the coaching staff gave a rah-rah speech. The players knew the situation.
I don’t disagree with you. I just get tired of hearing the same old same old.
Yikes –
Can’t decide if they were more lucky or good in this one but a win is a win. Well done boys!
They made some of their own good luck by the way they played in the third. Whatever Coach Corkum said it worked.
Give UAH alot of credit they played hard tough in your face hockey,they scrapped all night long and gave Maine fits from the get-go to the end,Saunders played a heck of a game…I hate the saying but it holds true tonight…it’s too bad there had to be a loser…I’m a big Maine Hockey fan,but you have to take your Hat off and give the UAH squad a tip of the cap for a gutsy performance…
UAH did come out flying. If you look at there schedule they have played a lot of hard fought tight games with the big boys. I feared Maine would come in and think they would win just by showing up and for two periods that was certainly the case. It is tough to get yourself fired up to play a team that is 2-24-1 no matter how the coaches stress not to overlook them all week. UAH did play well but it was a reflection of how Maine played just as much. I suspect that they will come out from the get go tonight and not wait until the third period and beat em handedly tonight. Great W tho, it could have killed a lot of momentum and looked dismal. Game like that you never how it could relate and possibly send them into a tailspin but ended up perhaps giving them a boost instead for the final run. Up to 8 in the PWR with lots of help from other teams. Keep it up !
Also the added pressure of not being in the underdog role and playing in a game where you are expected to win is a mindset that this team has not had to deal with much this year. UAH has nothing to lose except maybe their program, so they are going all out and playing loose. Not making excuses for them just my opinion.
That being said they need to play their game tonight, beating guys to the puck, aggressive on offense, and better team defense to include knocking the UAH forwards off the puck rather than letting them walk through your zone…… Go Maine Blue!
Definitely. When you check Saunder’s stats, UAH obviously doesn’t score for him and give the opposition too many shots. His save percentage is quite respectable.
The 2nd period was as bad a period to watch as you’ll ever see. The Maine team stood around and watched as UAH took it to them all over the ice.One can understand that when you’re playing a better team but when playing a lesser team their is no excuse. Glad to hear them come back after Coach Corkum read them the riot act between the 2nd and 3rd. My guess is they don’t take UAH so lightly tonight
Thank you, Coach Corkum, for doing what a coach is supposed to do, and getting the team turned around when they needed it. Hopefully the players learned a valuable lesson and come out with some passion tonight.
Dodging a bullet for sure, their PWR would have taken a big hit with a loss to UAH and with one more game tonight that isn’t out of the question. Give credit to UAH for playing tough and taking advantage of the opportunities they had, there will be more of that tonight so be ready Blue!
Maine’s PWR is about to take a couple hits, Merrimack will flip their comparison as soon as they play another couple games.
Maine will lose a lot of comparisons as soon as UMass and Northeastern are no longer TUCs. Maine might have to lose to those 2 teams in order to stay competitive in the PWR. (just like the year that Maine had to lose to UMass in order to make it into the NCAA tournament. Had Maine won that night, Maine would have knocked themselves out of the tourney.)
so root for NU to win the beanpot then? haha
Haha anyone see the problem with that? I don’t totally disagree with the PWR and do appreciate that quality wins weigh heavier. But to need to lose a game to not fall isn’t something that should be able to happen.
Don’t say I didn’t warn ya’
You did. Anyone who knows Whitehead hockey knew that there was a chance that the boys would not be motivated.
BUT, Give Tim credit for using one of his assistants in a way that he CAN be used. Tim never delegated tasks to others. He always did everything himself. I am willing to get behind him if he starts using the tools at his disposal. Heck, even Shawn Walsh knew what his limitations were and he brought in others to help augment his skill set.
Corkum can bark. Great! Corkum knows what competition at the highest level in hockey is like. As long as Tim starts to realize that barking is a good thing, when used at the right times, and he keeps letting Bobby motivate at the right times, then Maine just might have a great coaching staff.
I cannot remember the last time maine came back from 3 goals down in the third. It might have been a Providence game back before Colin Shields played at Maine.
Keep up the great work guys. But don’t think that you can beat everyone out there when you are down 3-0 in the third.
I know this isnt the game we wanted as fans, but this IS the game that the hockey team needed because it shows they wont give up…..plus with UAH playing a different style game as we’ve seen this year it shows we can play this way also…..there goalie isnt the everyday 2-25-2 goalie….he faces 30 plus shots a game, and on the road more times then at home….anytime ANY team comes back from 3 goals deserves credit…..Plus UAH had played 2 one goal games against the top team in the country, and even beat Denver on the road…so UAH isnt a everyday normal bad team, they play hard and dont look at who they are playing they look at what they can do to prove themselves….so congrats to UM on the great comeback, Abbott showing why he deserves to be a finalist for the Hobey and moving up in the pairwise to #8! One last thing…..think about whats going on across the border with UNH….Im happy where we are at this year! See you at Alfond tonight Blue!
Just remember, Go Blue doesn’t work against UAH. Their colors are royal blue and white. Go Black Bears!
Cliff hanging nail biter but worthwhile at the end. My 5th grader grandson said, without malice, after two periods, “this is the worst game I’ve seen”. He brightened considerably from then on. I told him he was a goodluck charm.
Those who only read the BDN online missed the ad right below the hockey article. The BDN, in an ad, saluted the 243 UMaine student athletes with a 3.0 GPA or higher. The roster sheet at the game pointed out that 23 of 26 hockey players had a 3.0 or better and the team average was 3.31, the highest ever. I’d rather have a crew like this rather than a bunch of goon NHL wannabes with a loudmouth “untouchable” coach who got thrown out (finally) of a game.
Go Black Bears!
What, no comments from the players about ‘lessons learned’ and all that crap?
All this team has to do is just look at what UAH did last night to see just how far hard work can take you. A UAH team that by rights shouldn’t even hold a candle to this Maine team almost won that game, and by all aspects, should have. But they hustled and outworked a vastly more talented team, and almost came away with the win.
Thank God there’s at least one coach in the Maine locker room.
2-24 record team in our home arena going up 3-0 and we luckily force them to overtime to win? please steve abbott, do the right thing and put out a help wanted ad at the end of the season.
And tonight the Black Bears put up 5 unanswered goals. GO MAINE!