ORONO, Maine — University of Vermont men’s hockey coach Kevin Sneddon acknowledged that his team caught a break at the end of the second period on Saturday night when an apparent game-tying goal by the University Maine’s Dan Renouf was overturned by video review because the puck hadn’t completely crossed the goal line when the time had expired.
So the 13th-ranked Catamounts, who had taken a 2-1 lead on Brady Shaw’s power-play goal in that second period, maintained that lead. Jarrid Privitera expanded it 2:47 into the third period on Saturday night as Vermont dealt Maine its seventh straight loss, 4-1, on Military Appreciation Night at Alfond Arena.
It was a nonconference game and featured an appearance by retired U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills, a quadruple amputee who suffered his horrific injuries from an Improvised Explosive Device during his third tour of duty in Afghanistan.
He received an emotional and lengthy ovation from the crowd of 4,148 before the game.
Vermont (11-3-1) had won two Hockey East games over the Black Bears in Burlington, Vermont, earlier this month before sweeping Maine in Orono this weekend.
The Catamounts won 6-3 on Friday night and have now beaten Maine seven straight times.
The Black Bears are 3-11-1 and their seven-game losing streak is their longest since they dropped seven in a row from Oct. 19-Nov. 9, 2012.
“That [overturned call] was the turning point,” Sneddon said. “If that puck had crossed the line [before the end of the period], maybe it’s a different game. That probably set Maine back. It’s a game of inches, they say. We felt pretty fortunate the puck hadn’t crossed the line before the buzzer went off.”
“It was tough,” Maine junior captain and center Devin Shore said. “It would have been nice to have that one. But we weren’t fazed by it. It didn’t deflate us or anything like that.”
“I guess [the puck] was on the goal line when time expired but you have to shake that off. You have to move on and get the next one,” said Maine junior center Steven Swavely, who scored the equalizer for Maine in the first period only 1:04 after Mario Puskarich had opened the scoring.
Shaw’s power-play goal broke a 1-1 tie at the 12:34 mark of the middle period as the Catamounts took advantage of a five-minute major called on Maine freshman center Cedric Lacroix for a contact-to-the-head infraction.
Rob Hamilton wristed a shot from the point and it landed on the stick of Shaw, who was cutting from left to right across the low slot. Shaw was in tight and had plenty of exposed net but hit the outside of the post with his first shot before he alertly corralled the rebound, took a few quick steps out front and tucked the puck in the short side before Maine goalie Sean Romeo could scramble across.
The Black Bears were able to kill off the rest of the penalty and stormed the net looking for the equalizer over the final two minutes of the period only to have Renouf’s one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Eric Schurhamer beat Mike Santaguida a tad late.
Privitera extended the lead 2:47 into the third period and Anthony Petruzzelli added an empty-netter.
Mario Puskarich’s fourth goal in four games against Maine this season supplied Vermont with a 1-0 lead 6:48 into the game as he swept home a Mike Paliotta rebound.
It was one of his 11 shots on goal in the game.
Swavely answered for Maine just 1:04 later when he deflected a Schurhamer wrister between Santaguida’s pads.
Shaw scored the game-winner when Rob Hamilton’s shot from the point deflected to him as he cut from left to right across the low slot and he was able to tuck the puck inside the near post after his initial shot hit the post.
Privitera scored with a one-timer from the left circle over Sean Romeo’s glove off a pass from Rob Darra.
Sneddon said he had told Privitera and linemates Darrar and Dan Senkbeil after the second period “that I would need some big shifts from them in the third period. They hadn’t played much in the second period because there was so much special teams play. They certainly answered that request.”
Sneddon added that he was “very proud” of his team and its sweep at Alfond Arena “because this is a very difficult place to play. We played a very strong game but I also thought Maine played really strong. Red did a good job getting his players ready to go.”
Romeo made 40 saves while Santaguida finished with 27.
“Our guys played really hard and we received good goaltending. (Romeo) gave us a chance to win. We had to kill a bunch of penalties. But we were very poor on the power play [0-for-5] and that has to change for us to be able to win hockey games.”
Maine has now gone six games without a power play goal (0-for-22).
Vermont went 1-for-7 with the man advantage but was unable to score on a full two-minute, two-man advantage.
“[Santaguida] did a great job. He was under more pressure tonight [than Brody Hoffman in Friday night’s win],” Sneddon said. “Maine played as hard as it possibly could. Mike was a big part of the win. And I thought [Romeo] played very well. He made some huge saves.”
“Vermont is a good hockey team. They played us hard and deserved to win. But we pushed back tonight and I was proud of the guys,” Shore said. “We’ll get this turned around.”