Senior center Lacey Martin’s second goal of the game, coming with just 2:26 remaining, gave the Boston University Terriers a hard-fought 4-3 Hockey East win over the University of Maine at Alfond Arena on Monday night.
It was the 15th time in the teams’ last 21 meetings that was decided by one goal or wound up a tie.
BU improved to 9-8-2 overall and 7-6-1 in the conference, while UMaine fell to 10-11-0 and 6-8-0, respectively.
UMaine has now lost three of its last four including back-to-back Hockey East losses to Boston College (3-2) and BU after having a five-game winning streak.
Mari Pietersen made 23 saves for BU, while Julia Bachetti came up with 26 stops for UMaine, which had overcome a 3-1 deficit to tie it.
But Martin decided it when she took a pass from Maeve Kelly in the neutral zone and was able to skate around a UMaine defenseman, who was in the middle of the ice and came over to try to cut her off.
She sliced across the top of the crease and tucked a backhander past Bachetti for her team-high ninth goal of the season.
“It was a really good headman [pass from Kelly],” said Martin. “I just had some speed and I saw a lane to cut across the net and decided to take it.
“Maeve’s pass was really quick so their defenseman wasn’t able to gap up like she wanted to and it gave me a little more room. Maeve made a really smart play there to set me up for success,” added Martin who wasn’t surprised they were involved in another close game wth UMaine.
“Maine is always a very hard, tough team. They’re really physical and we know that. It’s always going to be a tough, hard-fought game with them. It’s always going to be close,” said Martin.
The Welcke twins, who transferred to Boston University from UMaine, teamed up on the power play for the only goal of the first period, with sophomore left wing Luisa Welcke scoring her fourth of the season and sister Lilli making the pass.
Graduate student center and Norwich University transfer Ann-Frederique Guay equalized with her 17th 5:15 into the middle period.
BU built a 3-1 lead on goals by freshman right wing Alex Law, her third, and Martin, which was another power-play marker.
But senior left wing Rahel Enzler gave the Black Bears a lifeline by scoring her sixth with just 22 seconds remaining in the period.
Mikayla Boarder tied it up early in the third period with a breakaway backhander after she blocked a pass at the defensive blue line.
It was the freshman right wing’s fourth of the season.
Luisa Welcke opened the scoring 15:23 into the game.
Andi Calderone had the puck at the point and slid it over to Lilli Welcke in the right faceoff circle.
She made a quick pass to her sister in the inner half of the right circle and Luisa Welcke’s one-timer along the ice beat Bachetti inside the far post for her fourth goal of the season.
Bachetti made a pair of important saves at the end of the period to keep her team within one as another BU power play yielded high-percentage chances for Nadia Mattivi and Clara Yuhn.
Guay tied it up when she jammed home the rebound of a Jamie Grinder wrist shot from the point.
Law answered 2:34 later with a rising wrist shot from the left circle off a neat little drop pass from Catherine Foulem.
Martin expanded the lead when Brooke Disher’s shot from the slot deflected over to her at the right puck and she snuck it past Bachetti.
Enzler cut it to 3-2 off a two-on-one.
She broke down the left wing after taking a pass from Mira Seregeley and beat Pietersen with a wrister into the short side corner.
UMaine head coach Molly Engstrom said her team “is no longer where we want to be.
“Two games ago, we said we were where we wanted to be. But the last couple of games, with these conference points on the line, we weren’t able to finish out and play at the pace we need to play,” said Engstrom. “Today was better but when you give away the first 13 minutes of the game, you’re constantly trying to catch up.”
She also said “what we’re talking about right now is individual tendencies. We need to be more disciplined. We have players looping away from plays and that is going to get you. A good goal-scoring team is going to punish you and we feel that right now,” added the second-year head coach and former U.S. Olympic star.
UMaine fifth-year senior right wing Ida Kuoppala said “I don’t think we played that bad but we made some mistakes and they scored on those and we couldn’t really get the puck into the net and you have to score goals to win games.”
UMaine will entertain Northeastern University on Friday at 6 and Saturday at 4 while BU will host New Hampshire at 6 before traveling to take on UConn on Saturday at 3.