University of Maine senior center Nolan Renwick’s goal at the 11:02 mark of the second overtime, coming on the Black Bears’ 61st shot on goal, gave UMaine a 4-3 victory over Northeastern University in their Hockey East semifinal at the TD Garden in Boston on Thursday night.
The second seeded Black Bears, 23-7-6 and ranked fourth in both national polls, will now take on fourth seed UConn in Friday’s 7:30 p.m. title game. UConn, 22-10-4, scored five unanswered goals after spotting third seed Boston University the game-opening goal and triumphed 5-2 to extend its unbeaten streak to nine games (8-0-1).
Northeastern, the first ninth seed to reach a Hockey East semifinal in league history dating back to the 1984-85 season, finished up at 14-20-3.
It will be UMaine’s first appearance in a Hockey East championship game since 2012, when the Black Bears lost to Boston College 4-1. They will be seeking their first title since 2004 when they beat UMass 2-1 in triple overtime.
“We’ve got a really gutsy group,” UMaine head coach Ben Barr said after the win.
The second seeded Black Bears, ranked fourth in both national polls, entered Thursday night’s Hockey East semifinal game with a 14-1 record in games in which it jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
But the desperate Huskies, needing to win the tournament to earn an NCAA tourney berth, scored three unanswered goals to take the lead before UMaine junior defenseman Luke Antonacci scored with 7:17 remaining to force the overtime.
After a scoreless first overtime, Renwick decided it off a pass from Charlie Russell.
Russell maneuvered cleverly into open ice in the right faceoff circle and passed the puck to the far post where it hit off the leg of the crouching Renwick and went in for Renwick’s ninth goal of the season.
“I don’t know if [Russell] meant to hit me with that one, but right spot, right time and I can’t complain about it,” Renwick said during a TV interview after the win.
UMaine goalie Albin Boija finished with 33 saves and Cameron Whitehead made 57 for Northeastern.
UMaine attempted 138 shots to Northeastern’s 69.
“We knew it was going to be a greasy one. Their goalie played outstanding,” Renwick said after the win. “What, we put up 60 shots on him? So that was kind of our mindset. We were gonna go to the net, and I was just hoping one hit off me. And it ended up going in, so I’m pretty pumped.”
Northeastern University sophomore center Andy Moore from Cumberland scored his first collegiate goal in his 68th career game 4:29 into the third period.
But Antonacci’s second goal of the season and second in three games forced overtime.
Antonacci got the equalizer with a wrist shot from the high slot off a Harrison Scott faceoff win.
Antonacci maneuvered neatly around a diving Husky and snapped a wrist shot that beat Whitehead.
UMaine had taken a 2-0 lead on two goals by junior left wing Owen Fowler.
Sophomore right wing Dylan Hryckowian and junior left wing and linemate Cam Lund scored second-period goals for Northeastern to tie the game after Fowler had scored a first-period goal and an early second-period goal.
Moore gave the Huskies their first lead when he outmuscled UMaine’s Sully Scholle in front of the net and shoveled a backhander past Boija off a Nick Rheaume rebound.
Fowler opened the scoring at the 14:02 mark of the first period when he came out of the penalty box, took a feed from Scott and broke in alone on Whitehead before firing the puck between the goalie’s legs.
He made it 2-0 just 2:03 into the second period when he pounced on a Lynden Breen rebound and wristed it past Whitehead for his 10th goal of the season.
Hryckowian began the comeback just 1:59 later on the power play.
Lund wristed a puck to the net and Joe Connor redirected it on net.
Boija made the save but the rebound sat in the crease. UMaine defenseman Frank Djurasevic took a swipe at it and it hit Boija’s leg and squirted out to Hryckowian, who jammed it home for his 17th of the season.
Lund scored his 18th with just 49 seconds left in the period on a breakaway.
Jackson Dorrington came out of the penalty box and threaded the needle with a pass to Lund, who beat Boija to the glove side from 12 feet out.
Renwick was asked about UMaine’s resilience in the post-game interview.
“I think it’s just the guys we have in that locker room,” Renwick responded. “A lot of teams, when you lose a two goal lead like that, especially in the third period and you give up that third one, they pack it in and quit. But not us, we never quit. And credit to Luke Antonacci, he stepped up big there.”
Barr said he thought his team played really well “especially after we got down 3-2” in the third period.
“I was proud of the way the guys hung in there,” Barr added.
He said you don’t want to go down 3-2 after being up 2-0 “but the guys found another level, which was good to see.”
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that UMaine junior defenseman Luke Antonacci’s goal was his second of the season, not the second of his career.