ORONO, Maine — University of Maine senior right wing Joey Diamond has had a lot of success against the University of Vermont and that continued on Saturday night.
Diamond’s power-play goal 1:11 into the third period extended his goal-scoring streak against Vermont to six games and enabled the Black Bears to earn a 2-2 overtime tie in front of 3,787 at Alfond Arena.
Maine is 2-10-2 overall, 1-6-2 in Hockey East, while Vermont is 3-7-3 and 3-6-3, respectively.
The Black Bears are now 0-6-2 at Alfond Arena and the eight-game home winless streak is the longest in the history of the hockey program dating back to the 1977-78 season,
Maine lost seven straight at Alfond Arena during the 1984-85 season but beat North Dakota to end the streak.
Maine outshot Vermont 38-21 and had a 77-42 edge in shot attempts.
UVM goalie Brody Hoffman finished with 36 saves, including 17 of the Grade-A (high-percentage) variety while Maine goalie Martin Ouellette wound up with 19, including 13 Grade-A’s.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted but there were a lot of positives and we need to keep working to build on those positives,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead.
“We got better as the game went on,” said tri-captain Diamond. “We played hard. We played better than we did on Friday night [2-1 loss].”
Junior center Matt White staked UVM to a 1-0 lead in the second period but freshman defenseman Ben Hutton drew Maine level 4:32 later. Senior right wing Tobias Nilsson-Roos broke the tie with four seconds left in the second period.
Diamond answered when he dashed to the front of the net from the corner to the right of Hoffman and took a point-blank backhander that Hoffman saved with his left pad. However, Diamond poked the rebound inside the far post.
“I just threw it to the net and got the rebound,” said Diamond who has seven goals in nine career games against UVM..
“He out-waited me,” said Hoffman. “I should have pushed out more.,”
“We’re going to have to shadow [Diamond] next time,” quipped UVM coach Kevin Sneddon. “He’s a good player,”
Sneddon felt his team was “fortunate” to get the tie.
“Maine was the better team tonight. They played an outstanding game. [Hoffman] earned us a point,” said Sneddon.
Ouellette made his best save of the night moments after Diamond’s goal when Mike Montagna was set up alone off a pass from Jacob Fallon off a two-on-one.
“I saw the pass coming across and was able to square myself up to the shooter,” said Ouellette.
Ouellette also made some important saves on a Vermont power play that spanned the last 48 seconds of regulation and the first 1:12 of overtime.
“I thought I played a decent game and the team played really well,” said Ouellette. “We’ll take the point but it’s frustrating because we should have won.”
Following an uneventful and scoreless first period, White opened the scoring for Vermont at the 4:02 mark off a faceoff but Hutton equalized at the 11:38 mark.
Maine outshot Vermont 18-7 in the second period but the Catamounts were opportunistic.
White scored his second goal of the season when he drove to the net and jammed home the rebound of a Nick Luukko shot from the point that bounced out of Ouellette’s glove. The Catamounts won a faceoff clean back to Luukko.
“I’d like to have that one back,” said Ouellette. “I should have caught [Luukko’s shot].”
Hutton drew Maine level when Mark Anthoine’s shot off an Adam Shemansky feed was blocked but deflected over to him.
Hutton’s wrister from just beyond the left faceoff dot glanced in off Hoffman’s shoulder.
The goal energized the Black Bears and they carried the play until the final minute when the Bears turned the puck over in their own end and the Catamounts generated a multiple-shot flurry.
Ouellette made saves off Fallon and Chris McCarthy before Nilsson-Roos deposited the puck behind the helpless Ouellette.
Scoring chances were at a premium in the first period although both teams received power-play chances that they failed to capitalize on.
Maine had three consecutive power plays but rarely challenged Hoffman.
Later in the period, the Catamounts squandered a full two-minute two-man advantage without seriously testing Ouellette.
Maine went 1-for-7 on the power play and now has a power-play goal in four of its last five games. However, it failed to convert with a two-man advantage that spanned 1:37 in the second period.
Maine also held UVM without a power-play goal on the weekend as UVM went 0-for-4 each night..
Tim Whitehead……..setting new records for futility! GOoooooo Blue!
Let’s go Abbott give the Maine fans a nice Christmas gift by firing Timmay
As on Friday night, so tonight, the refs. cost UMaine the game. Why do they favor the other teams? Outrageous. UMaine deserved to win but were cheated out of a victory, once again. Tim Whitehead still coached brilliantly.
Not the refs fault this team is pathetic. Whitehead agreed with the calls he nodded his head several times after each one.
The team needs fans when they are losing more than when they are winning. You suggest people stop attending, why don’t you stop watching these games and follow your own advise. Some people just like college hockey, period.
Excellent point. I agree. Eventually attendance dips or not, someone around the U will get sick enough of losing.
I love hockey
And I love umaine hockey, but the garbage that whitehead requires out of his players is not hockey
If we want hockey back at the Alfond, we have to do what it takes to get whitehead out of the equation.
Boycott is a good start
As for ” why is an angry coach a good coach”
Hockey is a competitive contact sport. The players need to be emotionally excited and they need to NEED to win. Whitehead does not allow captains or assistants to ” rally the troops”. Sometimes yelling gets hits to move and compete, sometimes dropping a subtle hint does the trick. Whatever whitehead does, he does not get the players ready to play competitive hockey.
That’s why
Sorry, but Tim was just being his usual calm and professional self. I suspect that he was seething beneath the surface. In any case, he remains one UMaine’s three greatest men’s hockey coaches of all time and deserves only praise, not criticism.
I don’t get how people associate a pissed off coach with a good coach. The bottom line is getting through to your team no matter if you are a hot head or calm coach. If your players don’t respond to you that is the problem. Have you ever seen Jerry York come unglued on a ref or yell or scream at his players? Do you really think he goes into the locker room after a bad period and throws stuff, yells and screams. I highly doubt it. I have played from some real fiery coaches, Nate Lehman being one of them, tho that can be motivational at some times, every coach has a different style and I don’t believe the reason Whitehead needs to go has anything to do weather or not he gets mad and screams at refs or players when they are not performing. It is much deeper than that and comes down to x’s and o’s and the ability to get your team ready to play night in and night out.
So, is TIMMAY getting through to this bunch or not? They certainly aren’t playing any better as a result of his tutelage.
Clearly he isn’t and that is the point. I am simply saying he isn’t a bad coach because he doesn’t yell and scream and boil over. He may not be a bad coach period but he is stubborn and I think that you have to be flexible and willing to change your systems based on the talent and abilities of your players at some point and he simply does not do that. At some point you “overstay your welcome” and it is just time for a change, something fresh. That time has come. TIMMAY will get another job somewhere, he coached at Maine and had success in the early part of his tenor weather it was Walshy and Grants players or not, will look good on a resume. But it is time to get him out of here for sure.
Oh, he’s shown himself to be a bad coach. teams with good coaches don’t keep making the same mistakes over and over, game after game.
Sure he may coach elsewhere. But I doubt if there’s any D-1 team that’s willing to think he’s an improvement over what they already have.
There are very few times a ref literally cost a team a game! You are in the situations you put yourself in at the point of a game where a ref can make or break a game! As for the call last night with the no goal……By rule it was the right call, where fans and coach should be pissed, the fact the goalie for the whole last minute or so was absolutely mauling Diamond and got away with it. They call a penalty it may not change the outcome of the game but it was surely penalty and would of given Maine a better shot with a 6 on 4.
No wins at home until at least 2013 this is pathetic.
Abbott and Whitehead need to go. We are riding a dead horse with no chance for recovery….
In other news, congratulations to Jerry York of BC for tieing the D1 all time win record held by Ron Mason (Shawn Walsh’s mentor).
I realized that Maine was doomed under Whitehead when he lost the late game lead and the National Championship to Minnesota early on during his Reign of Terror……….in hindsight, that was definitely a sign of things to come.
Then again a few years later……he pulled the same coaching choke job vs. Denver in Boston despite having one of the best collegiate goal tenders ever in Jimmy Howard as Maine lost 1-0.
From that point on, it has felt like we are driving down the Mount Washington Auto Road with no brakes.
BOYCOTT all UMAINE Sporting Events(if that is what they are really calling them) until Abbot gets a clue that the taxpayers are not going to continue to pay for mediocrity….JUST DON”T GO!!!!!
I can see your point and that would be heard loud and clear by the University. However, with the NHL on strike and being as far north as we are with no hockey close to us, people are hockey fans and want to watch hockey. I have had season tickets for years now and certainly want what everyone else wants but still love hockey and go to the games. Tho it is not good hockey, its still hockey.
If you truly love hockey that i suggest that you go to the pee-wee games and high school games and give them your support. They dont use taxpayer money for the most part and show true enthusiasm in victory and defeat. If the fans of UMaine sports dont send a clear and resounding message to Abbot and the University, you will never see the needed changes to make these programs competitive again.
After every UMaine hockey loss/tie, we are all calling for Tim’s head on a platter, but to no avail. As I’ve said before, his firing is not going to happen during the season – Steve Abbott just doesn’t operate like that. Hopefully, a “mutual” agreement between Timmy and UMaine will send Tim packing next spring. All we can hope is that Abbott is listening and paying attention to our cries of anguish. For some of us, UMaine hockey is more than a sport around here. It is a crutch that allows us to forget the cold winter nights, and the high oil bills, if only for a couple of hours. Folks will not totally boycott games, because win or lose, its a couple of hours away from “life”. However – there were a lot of empty seats last night at Alfond !
Is it crazy to think that the article written last week with Montgomery is a good sign? To me it sounds like Monty just said all the right things and perhaps this has been discussed for real recently. He did send Morris here, maybe he told him to come here because him and Grant would be here soon! Just a thought….albeit an optimistic thought.
I remember the years when there was a four year waiting list to get season tickets…and getting regular admission tickets was nearly impossible. How the mighty have fallen…Again, you have to blame the right people and the lack of effort starts at the very top.
Why not include who committed the penalty at the end of regulation , that resulted in Maine having to be on the penalty kill for the 2 of the last 6 minutes of the game? hard to generate scoring chances when you are short handed. Why doesn’t this publicaiton include the box scores of the games?
for years a few vocal, knowledgable Maine fans were saying that Tim was not the man for the job for a number of REASONS.
For most of that time, a bunch of nice people who did not know the game came on here and defended Tim asking “what about all those frozen fours?”
We said that there would be no more frozen fours, and we were called crazy.
Well people UMaine hockey is ranked 54th in the nation.
Please people, stop supporting this and call the university and tell them WHY you are not supporting it.
Whitehead is paid $190K per year and the associates are paid over $100k each.
This state does not have that kind of money when others can barely scrape by.
Almost $4 of every ticket bought goes directly into Whitehead’s paycheck.
Yet the school turned down private money to get rid of him a few years back.
If you have the RIGHT people backing you it doesn’t matter. Clearly does not matter what Wins or Losses he has, he has a buddy in the system who likes him and is the one that makes that call unfortunately.
That $4 to Whitehead stat really brings the point home…..turns my stomach, actually.
Excellent points, John — those early naysayers were called “Internet crazies” by this esteemed coach. Not so crazy, methinks!
Can you imagine what the crowds will look like next season with Whitehead behind the bench? I can’t imagine how you are going to spin that one, Mahoney! ;)
If anyone’s interested, Jim Montgomery’s team is 17-3-1 right now.
I have seen many comments about Jim Montgomery coaching at Maine, and I am wondering if he has expressed interest in coaching at Maine, or are people just wishing he would coach here? I say if he is interested, lets get him here ASAP. We can’t let things to go downhill any longer.