PORTLAND, Maine — Freshman defenseman Zach Osburn’s second power-play goal of the game, coming with 1:09 left in regulation, gave Michigan State a 3-3 overtime tie against the University of Maine men’s hockey team at the Cross Insurance Arena in the Ice Breaker Tournament on Friday night.
The Spartans had just replaced goalie Jake Hildebrand with the extra attacker and Osburn’s snap shot from the left point slipped past the left skate of Maine goalie Matt Morris into the far corner.
“I had time to dust [the puck] off. I was looking for a tip-in but it went straight in,” said Osburn who scored on the Spartans 11th power play.
All three MSU goals came on the power play.
The Osburn goal came after Blaine Byron received an interference penalty for touching the puck while he still had one foot in the penalty box.
“It’s in the rulebook but I’ve never seen it called in 36 years of coaching,” said Maine coach Red Gendron.
The teams went to a shootout and Maine’s Steven Swavely was the only one of the six shooters to score. That means the winner of Saturday night’s Maine-North Dakota game will be crowned the tourney champ.
The game is a tie in the NCAA records.
“It’s a tie but it felt like a win,” said Swavely.
Gendron was pleased with the performance.
“We did a lot of good things five-on-five,” said Gendron. “If we had stayed out of the box we would have won the game. And I thought we did a good job on the penalty kill but 11 power plays isn’t ideal. Matt Morris did a nice job.”
Gendron thought his team did a good job keeping its composure and not allowing circumstances impact them.
Morris finished with 33 saves while Hildebrand wound up with 26.
Byron’s shorthanded goal have given Maine its third one-goal lead of the game after Joe Cox had tied it on the power play 3:50 into the third period.
Byron restored the lead 3:18 later.
Byron converted a two-on-one with Cam Brown that began just outside the Maine zone.
Brown carried the puck down the left wing and flipped it over to Byron, who took the pass on the backhand side, cut across to his forehand and lifted it into the net.
Cox had tied it when he pounced on the rebound of a Thomas Ebbing shot and fired it past Morris.
The Black Bears took a 2-1 lead into the third period thanks to a second-period goal by Brian Morgan and an exceptional job of penalty-killing.
The Black Bears took three penalties in a span of just 1:40 in the middle period giving the Spartans two extensive, two-man advantages.
MSU carried the play in the second period until Maine earned a power play midway through the period.
The Black Bears worked the puck nicely on the power play and generated a number of chances which energized the crowd. Swavely hit the post and the crossbar during the impressive power play.
Maine fed off that momentum and Morgan gave them the lead when he deflected Eric Schurhamer’s wrist shot from the midpoint past Hildebrand.
The Black Bears were under the gun a few minutes later when the Spartans had their lengthy five-on-threes but Maine’s penalty killers did an outstanding job rotating in the triangle in front of Morris and limiting the Spartans to shots from the perimeter.
The teams swapped power-play goals in the evenly-played first period. Senior right wing Will Merchant struck first for the Black Bears at the 3:10 mark before freshman defenseman Zach Osburn answered at 15:13.
Merchant capitalized on a rebound.
Sam Becker passed to Eric Schurhamer at the midpoint and Schurhamer slid the puck to the top of the left circle where Blaine Byron fired a slap shot off the mask of Hildebrand to Merchant, who tucked it home from 12 feet out.
The Spartans had a 1:02 two-man advantage and Osburn tied it with 29 seconds left on the one-man advantage.