Northeastern ousts Maine in Hockey East playoffs with overtime win – Bangor Daily News

The resilient University of Maine Black Bears erased a 3-0 deficit but senior left wing Kevin Roy scored with 6:15 left in overtime to give the Northeastern University Huskies a 4-3 victory and a sweep of their best-of-three Hockey East first-round series Saturday night at Matthews Arena in Boston.

Northeastern won Friday night’s game 3-2 in overtime.

Roy capitalized on an ill-advised pass by defenseman Mark Hamilton and fired a quick shot from the high slot past Maine freshman goalie Rob McGovern.

Late first-period goals 2:06 apart by Eric Williams, Nolan Stevens and Roy provided the Huskies with their 3-0 lead, but Cam Brown’s power-play goal at the 11:44 mark of the second period started the Maine comeback and third-period goals 3:49 apart by Cedric Lacroix and Keith Muehlbauer tied it up.

“Our guys played their tails off all weekend. They were extraordinarily gritty,” Maine coach Red Gendron said. “To be down 3-0 and come back was great. The game-winning goal was a great shot by a great player.”

It was the ninth straight win for the sixth-seeded Huskies, including four in a row over 11th-seeded Maine.

Northeastern improved to 18-13-5 and is now 16-1-2 over its last 19 games, a school record. Northeastern will visit No. 3 seed Notre Dame for a best-of-three quarterfinal series next weekend.

Maine finished with an 8-24-6 record, the worst since the 1982-83 season when the Black Bears went 5-24 under coach Jack Semler. The Black Bears wound up losing nine of their last 10 games.

It was Northeastern’s fourth straight Hockey East playoff overtime game dating back to last season, and Maine’s third in a row.

Freshman Ryan Ruck made 33 saves for the Huskies while McGovern had 26 stops for Maine.

Defenseman Williams opened the scoring with a screened shot from the point off a Brendan Collier faceoff win and a Roy pass. It was his seventh goal of the season and third at Maine’s expense.

Nolan Stevens increased the lead just 1:18 later by deflecting Garret Cockerill’s shot past McGovern after Zach Aston-Reese’s shot had hit the post.

Roy scored when he was left alone behind the net and he was able to stuff a wraparound behind McGovern.

Maine dominated the second period to the tune of a 16-5 shots advantage and Brown scored for the second straight game and for the third time in five games by converting a Will Merchant rebound.

Lacroix scored at the 4:40 mark of the third period as Andrew Tegeler fed him from behind the net and he beat Ruck with a one-timer from the right circle.

Freshman defenseman Muehlbauer tied it with a slap shot from the top of of the right circle off assists by fellow freshmen Brendan Robbins and Danny Perez.

It was Muehlbauer’s first career point.

“It would have been easy for us to roll over down 3-0 but we never quit. We showed the kind of character we have. The second period was one of our best of the year,” junior right wing Blaine Byron said.

Both teams had chances to win it in regulation and overtime but couldn’t convert until Roy decided it.

Maine had a two-on-one in overtime but Nolan Vesey had to elevate his pass over a sprawled Northeastern defenseman and Tegeler couldn’t get much on it and shot it wide.

“I think it was our best performance of the year,” Maine junior defenseman Dan Renouf said. “I was proud of how the boys responded after being three goals down. Their three goals woke us up and we dictated the play after that. It was a great effort.

“We just didn’t get the last bounce.”