ORONO, Maine — University of Maine men’s hockey coach Red Gendron cited his team’s resiliency after it spoiled Princeton University’s third-period comeback to win its fourth straight game, 3-2 in overtime, on junior left wing Blaine Byron’s second goal of the game Saturday night at Alfond Arena.
“I’d like to see how many people can handle 0-8-3 really well. This group of people, led by their leaders in the room, handled it as well as you can handle it. They came to work every day, put in the work and effort to make themselves better and now they’ve won four in a row,” said Gendron. “The work that was done four, five, six weeks ago led to these two weekends [sweeps].
“We were up 2-0 tonight, we let them back into it but we found a way to win and, to me, that is the story,” added the third-year Maine coach whose team improved to 4-8-3.
Princeton fell to 2-8.
Byron said it was an important win for the Black Bears.
“It’s always nice to win and I thought we played well. They took it to us in the third period a little bit but we kept battling,” said Byron, who has four goals and an assist during the winning streak.
“That’s been the story of our team this year. We never quit. We kept going and found a way pull out a big win. This was huge for our team going forward,” he added.
Byron’s first-period goal and Dan Renouf’s second-period power-play goal had staked Maine to a 2-0 lead before freshmen linemates Max Veronneau and Ryan Kuffner tied it.
Byron won it eight seconds after the Tigers had killed off a penalty.
Renouf fed the puck from the midpoint to Cam Brown in the corner to the left of Princeton goalie Colton Phinney. Byron, parked just beyond the crease, kept his stick on the ice and directed Brown’s perfectly-placed pass inside the far post.
“[Brown] made a really nice play,” said Byron. “It started up top with Dan Renouf. He made a nice seam pass to Cam. I just found a way to get my stick open and I really didn’t have to do anything. Cam made a great pass to put it on my stick and I just had to redirect it into the net.”
“Everyone picked up their guy but they still had an extra attacker on the ice,” said Phinney referring to the fact the penalized player, Joe Grabowski (slashing), hadn’t been able to race into position from the penalty box yet. “There was nothing you could do. It was a good play by him.”
Byron had opened the scoring 11:48 into the game with an exceptional individual play after he intercepted a Princeton breakout pass.
Despite having a backchecker hounding him, Byron was able to maneuver by another Tiger from left to right across the low slot. He then changed direction, moved the puck from his backhand to his forehand and stickhandled around Phinney before sweeping the puck into the open net as he was falling to the ice.
“That was an unbelievable individual effort,” Maine goalie Matt Morris said.
The Black Bears dominated the first period and had several quality chances to expand their lead but Phinney made eight Grade-A saves to keep his Tigers within striking distance.
Maine, which had gotten off to a slow start in Friday night’s 5-3 win over Princeton, outshot the Tigers 17-8 in the first period.
The second period was much more even as the Tigers generated a number of quality chances as did the Black Bears.
Renouf scored on a slapshot from the midpoint off a pass from Brown. Renouf was wide open and had time to take a stride before rifling the slapper over Phinney’s glove.
Right after the goal, Princeton’s Alex Riche had a breakaway but the puck rolled off his stick as he tried to make a move on Morris.
Seconds later, David Hallisey had a clear lane down the right side but Morris made the stop.
Earlier in the second period, Morris had smothered Kuffner’s point-blank attempt on a two-on-one with Veronneau. Veronneau made a tape-to-tape pass to Kuffner but Morris read the play and got his pads on the shot.
The Tigers cut the lead in half 6:33 into the third period when Maine turned the puck over at the offensive blue line and Kuffner fed it ahead to Veronneau for a breakaway. Veronneau flipped a 12-foot wrist shot over Morris’ glove.
Phinney kept the deficit at one with a magnificent save off Brown’s rebound attempt as he desperately reached out his glove while he was laying on the ice to rob Brown with 6:24 left.
Two minutes later, Kuffner equalized off a Josh Teves rebound.
Teves took a shot from the left faceoff circle that was kicked out by Morris. However, Teves alertly followed his shot and the loose puck deflected off his stick over to Kuffner at the far post and he tucked it behind Morris.
“[Teves] made a great play,” said Kuffner.
Morris finished with 31 saves including eight Grade-A’s. He has compiled a 1.98 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage in the four-game winning streak.
“We played really well both nights,” said Morris. “Colton and I grew up pretty close to each other in New Jersey and we’ve known each other since we were 10. I just wanted to compete and do my part.”
Phinney finished with 47 saves, including 21 Grade-A’s.
“He played unbelievable. He kept us in it,” Kuffner said.
Defenseman Renouf’s goal and assist gives him three goals and three assists in four games and Brown, who had two assists, now has a goal and three assists during that span while captain Steven Swavely has two goals and two assists, including an assist on Saturday night.
Kuffner had a goal and an assist for Princeton.
Maine will host New Hampshire on Friday night before traveling to UNH the next night.