The University of Maine’s hockey team rallied from a 2-0 deficit to earn a 2-2 tie in its exhibition game against arch-rival New Hampshire at the Sidney J. Watson Arena on the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick Friday night.
The teams played a scoreless, five-minute three-on-three overtime period before UNH won the shootout 2-1 as Cy LeClerc and Nick Ring converted with Max Scott being the only Black Bear to score.
Kyle Chauvette made 16 saves through overtime for UNH while UMaine’s Albin Boija and Mathis Rousseau combined to make 36 saves. Rousseau had 19 stops and Boija made 17.
UNH built its 2-0 lead with power-play goals in the first and second periods.
Sam Oliver scored the only goal of the first period before junior Marty Lavins extended the lead late in the second period.
But UMaine sophomore defenseman and newcomer Simon Motew answered within 30 seconds of Lavins’ goal and junior center Scott tied it up for the Black Bears on the power play with 8:49 remaining in the third period.
“We missed a lot of hits. We turned a lot of pucks over,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “We lost a lot of faceoffs the first two periods, we got a little better in the third, so we were chasing the game the whole time. Everything has to be better. Now we know and we’ll try to get better every day.”
UNH freshman Oliver, who led the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League in goals last season with 50, staked the Wildcats to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period.
Oliver, who had 105 goals in 194 games over his last three seasons in the QMJHL, rifled a one-timer from the faceoff dot over the glove of Boija.
His shot came off a cross-ice pass from freshman defenseman Nick DeAngelis.
UNH had several chances to extend the lead late in the period but Boija thwarted the Wildcats.
He finished with 12 saves in the period while Chauvette was forced to make just four stops.
Lavins made it 2-0 by flipping the rebound of his own initial shot past freshman goalie Rousseau.
Seconds later, Motew’s shot from the point rattled in off the post to cut the lead in half.
In the third period, Rousseau kept the Black Bears within a goal by making a blocker save off senior LeClerc’s shorthanded breakaway.
Moments later, Scott got the equalizer by directing the puck past Chauvette off a nifty feed from Josh Nadeau. Brandon Holt also assisted on the goal.
Scott, brother of UMaine’s 2024-25 scoring leader Harrison Scott, was Brown University’s leading goal scorer with 12 last season.
UMaine had 11 newcomers in the lineup and Barr said they have a lot of work to do.
“It was a lot for some of our guys,” said the fifth year coach. “We just weren’t ready to play at the pace we had to play at.”
UNH outshot UMaine 38-18 on the night.
“We got outworked. That’s going to be our challenge. We have to find our identity again,” said Barr. “We have a lot of guys who don’t know how hard it’s going to be and it’s not their fault. It’s our job [as coaches] to help them understand.”
Barr felt both goalies played well and that Nadeau, Scott and Holt turned in solid, hard-working performances. He was also pleased with his team’s comeback.
“It was good to see some clawback,” Barr said. “The shift after they scored [the second goal], we got one right back and that gave us a little life.”
UMaine will open the season by hosting defending Atlantic Hockey America regular season champion Holy Cross at 7 p.m. next Friday and Saturday.
UNH will travel to take on nationally-ranked Michigan State next weekend.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the class of defenseman Simon Motew. He is a sophomore.