ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team’s 10-game home unbeaten streak came to an end on Saturday night.
Junior defenseman Guillaume Richard, who had originally committed to attend the University of Maine, celebrated his 21st birthday by scoring a power play goal 23 seconds into overtime to give Providence College a 4-3 win over the Black Bears in front of 4,745 at the Alfond Arena.
UMaine had been 8-0-2 at Alfond Arena.
The Friars erased three one-goal deficits to earn the win. The Friars are now 16-9-2 overall and 9-6-2 in Hockey East, while the Black Bears fell to 18-6-2 and 10-5-1.
The Friars will pick up two Hockey East points for the win while UMaine earns one for the overtime loss. UMaine picked up all three points by winning Friday’s game 2-1 in regulation.
So third-place UMaine expanded its lead over fourth-place Providence to four points and UMaine has played one fewer game.
The Black Bears had a golden opportunity to break a 3-3 tie with two minutes left in the game but failed to convert on a 2-on-0 shorthanded break-in involving Donavan Houle and Ben Poisson.
Houle passed the puck across to Poisson, but Poisson’s shot sailed wide.
“It was a tough pass on bad ice,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr.
“We just didn’t execute it the way we wanted to. No excuses,” said Poisson, who added that Providence College sophomore goalie Philip Svedeback had slid across his crease toward him and had a lot of the net covered.
Just seconds later, freshman defenseman Liam Lesakowski picked up a minor penalty for holding with 1:09 remaining in regulation as he hauled down a Friar carrying the puck to the net.
The Black Bears killed off the regulation segment of the penalty, but it carried over into the three-on-three overtime.
It went to a four-on-three power play in OT and Richard capitalized with a one-timer into the short side corner past UMaine freshman goalie Albin Boija from the right faceoff circle off a pass from Nick Poisson. It was his third goal of the season.
“It was a great birthday present. It was just how we drew it up on the board. I found some open space for the [one-timer],” said Guillame, who changed his mind to attend Providence after the unexpected death of former UMaine head coach Red Gendron.
The power play opportunity was the ninth of the game for Providence, which is the most surrendered by the Black Bears in a game this season.
“You can’t take that many penalties,” said Barr. “The two penalties in the last three minutes were killers. They were bad penalties.”
UMaine senior center and co-captain Lynden Breen had taken a holding penalty with just 3:12 left in the game, his second penalty in just under five minutes.
All three UMaine goals came on the power play with freshman right wing Josh Nadeau scoring his 15th goal of the season and eighth on the power play with 12 seconds left in the first period. He one-timed a diagonal pass from his brother Bradly seconds after Bradly dove to stop a potential Friar breakaway.
Graduate student left wing Jamie Engelbert tied it with an even-strength goal 5:18 into the second period as he deflected a Cam McDonald shot past Boija. It was his sixth of the season.
Graduate student left wing Poisson restored the one-goal lead for UMaine with 25 seconds left in the middle period when he swatted a Josh Nadeau past Svedeback for his fourth of the season.
Freshman right wing Graham Gamache tied it early in the third period with his fourth of the year on the power play. He beat Boija from the middle of the slot off a rebound.
Sophomore defenseman Brandon Chabrier’s sixth goal supplied UMaine with its third one-goal lead with 8:59 left. He beat Svedeback with a screened wrist shot from the right point.
But freshman center Hudson Malinoski tied it with 4:33 left when he flipped the puck past Boija during a flurry in front. It was his seventh goal.
Svedeback finished with 22 saves while Boija made 28 stops. It was the first time Boija allowed more than two goals in a game for the first time in his nine appearances but he made a number of great saves as he was busier than Svedeback.
“I was proud of the guys,” said Providence coach Nate Leaman, whose team had scored just three goals in its previous three Alfond Arena games, all losses. “They could have put their heads down but they came back. They showed who we are.”
UMaine will visit New Hampshire for a two-game series next weekend with both games starting at 7 p.m. Providence will play a home-and-home series against Boston University.