University of Maine senior defenseman and co-captain Brandon Holt can’t recall previously scoring an overtime game-winning goal during his career.
But he picked a perfect time for his first one.
Holt scored 43 seconds into overtime to give the 12th-ranked Black Bears a 5-4 victory over fifth-ranked Boston University on Friday night at Alfond Arena.
It was a game that saw the Black Bears erase four one-goal deficits and kill a 42-second five-on-three BU power play late in the third period.
“Goal scoring isn’t really the best part of my game but I’ll take it. It’s awesome,” Holt said. “I don’t really care that it was me who scored, but it really is a good feeling to get the job done for the rest of the guys.”
Holt celebrated the goal by jumping into the boards on his back, only to have the door to the chute leading to the BU locker room pop open and leave him staring up at the ceiling.
He joked afterward that he’s not used to celebrating after scoring a goal.
“The way we battled tonight, it was awesome to do that for the rest of the guys,” Holt added about his game-winner.
On that final scoring play, freshman left wing Justin Poirier picked up the puck in UMaine zone and wound up chipping it around BU’s Cole Hutson before sliding the puck to the wide open Holt, who broke in alone on BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov.
Holt said he saw Poirier going up the ice and sensed that there was a lot of open ice, so he started moving his feet.
“He got by the first guy and all he had to do was chip the puck,” Holt said. “I kind of knew what I was going to do if I got the puck.
“So I went forehand-backhand and put it five-hole,” Holt added. “I think I had the whole other side of the net if I didn’t slide it five-hole but it went in.”’
Poirier said he noticed Hutson was flat-footed so he decided to put the puck behind Hutson at center ice and skate around him and onto it.
“After that I saw the other defenseman come at me, I saw Holty on the left wing, I made the pass and it was a beautiful goal,” said Poirier, who had two goals including the tying goal in the third period.
Poirier was happy it was Holt who scored the goal.
“He is the heart of the team. He plays hard every game, every single shift,” Poirier said about the co-captain. “It was fun to see his goal in OT.”
UMaine head coach Ben Barr shared a similar sentiment.
“He just does everything for us,” Barr said about Holt. “He deserved it. He is a big-time player.”
Barr was pleased with the win.
“The guys worked, top to bottom for the most part,” Barr. said. “We didn’t make the right decisions all the time and we obviously took some untimely penalties at the end. But they never stopped working, so it was a good sign. It was a step in the right direction.”
On the late penalty kill, Barr said his penalty-killers didn’t let BU get comfortable. On the couple of looks that the Terriers did get during that stretch, UMaine goalie Albin Boija made the saves.
“To kill a five-on-three in the last three minutes of a game and come back to win is pretty gutsy,” Barr said.