ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s men’s hockey team had gone 2-22-5 when trailing after two periods in the previous two seasons and 0-4 so far this year entering Saturday night’s Hockey East game against the University of Massachusetts at Alfond Arena.
But the resilient Black Bears overcame a listless first period and a pair of second-period goals 1:03 apart by Minutemen Dennis Kravchenko (power play) and Frank Vatrano to beat UMass 3-2 behind third-period goals from Devin Shore, Liam Pecararo and Blaine Byron.
Maine extended its unbeaten streak to four games (3-0-1) and improved to 3-4-1 overall, 2-0 in Hockey East. Maine had beaten UMass 6-5 in overtime on Friday night.
UMass fell to 2-5 and 1-4, respectively.
Freshman goalie Sean Romeo finished with 30 saves, including 18 in the first period when the Black Bears were thoroughly outplayed by the speedy Minutemen and were outshot 18-11. He finished with 15 Grade-A (high-percentage) saves among his 30 while picking up his first win.
“Full marks to our team,” said Maine head coach Red Gendron. “We were awful in the first period. If it wasn’t for Sean Romeo, we would have been down three or four goals. He played a magnificent game.
“But the guys responded with a pretty solid second period other than the mistakes that led to their two goals. Our guys started taking control of the game,” said Gendron, who shook up his lines in the third period.
“Still, being down by two going into the third period, even at Alfond Arena, is difficult to come back from but the guys responded to the challenge,” he added.
“After the second period, we focused on what we needed to do in the third,” said Maine senior left wing Connor Leen. “We were lights out in the third and we obviously got the results we wanted. (UMass) worked hard all game but we had the legs on them in the third period. Our guys are all in very good shape and it paid off.
“This was big for us. It showed our identity,” added Leen.
“We showed a lot of character,” said Byron whose game-winning goal came with 1:23 left.
Maine cycled the puck effectively in the offensive zone and the puck went back to Conor Riley at the point. Riley’s shot missed the net to the right of Mastalerz and it kicked over to Byron camped by the boards on the extended goal line.
“The goalie was out a little so figured I’d throw it on net to try to create a rebound or something,” said Byron. “It went in off his blocker or pad.”
Shore had ignited the comeback 7:04 into the third period when he camped out in the middle of slot and tipped a wrist shot from freshman defenseman Mark Hamilton past Mastalerz’s glove.
Hamilton had made a nice move cutting to the middle of the high slot to get a better shooting angle.
“A two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey. After we scored the first one, they started gripping their sticks and when we scored the second one, it deflated them,” said Leen. “Our crowd got going pretty good. It’s a tough place to play and the crowd had a lot to do with it.”
Pecararo made a nice play on the equalizer with 7:18 remaining as he stick-handled neatly out of the corner across the slot and fired a wrist shot back against the grain and past Mastalerz’s glove.
“Devin Shore said that had to be one of the best first (career) goals in Maine’s hockey history,” reported Gendron.
Maine pinned UMass in its end in the third period and cycled the puck effectively. Maine outshot UMass 15-6 over the final 20 minutes.
Kravchenko had opened the scoring with his third goal of the weekend as he took across-crease pass from Troy Power and beat a helpless Romeo, who had made a great glove save off Shane Walsh’s re-direction before the puck squirted loose in the crease.
Vatrano made it 2-0 with a one-timer from the top of the left circle off a pass from Steven Iacobellis.
“I thought I played well but I’d like to have that second goal back,” Romeo said.
Mastalerz wound up with 35 stops including 17 of the Grade-A variety in a strong outing.
UMass coach John Micheletto said his team gave a much better account of itself than it had on Friday night.
“But we have a young team and they had to expend so much energy trying to come back (from 3-0 and 5-3 deficits) on Friday night, that there was a little bit of fatigue,” said Micheletto. “And we had a couple of shifts that were too long.”