University of Maine junior center and captain Tanner House scored 5:10 into overtime Sunday night to send the Black Bears to the Hockey East Tournament Semifinals with a 3-2 win in the decisive third game of their quarterfinal series against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.<\/p>\n
Maine will oppose defending National Champions Boston University next Friday at the TD Garden in Boston. Vermont will face Boston College in the other semifinal.<\/p>\n
House drove to the left post while sophomore left wing Brian Flynn skated with the puck along the left-wing boards and slid him a pass after drawing Lowell senior goaltender Carter Hutton over with a fake.<\/p>\n
“I can’t describe that feeling,” House said of his 16th goal of the season. “Flynn made a great pass. I was fortunate to bang it in off the post.”<\/p>\n
Maine is returning to the semifinals for the first time since the 2005-06 season, when they lost to Boston College in that game, but followed the tournament with a trip to the NCAA Frozen Four. Lowell lost to B.U. in the Hockey East Championship Game last season.<\/p>\n
“They (Maine) are to be congratulated,” Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald said. “They really bounced back from some adversity and played well.”<\/p>\n
Maine sophomore defenseman Will O’Neill’s second goal of the game with 4:48 remaining in the third period sent the game to into the extra 20-minute session. O’Neill sent a whistling one-timer past Hutton from the right point. The goal came while the teams were skating four-on-four. <\/p>\n
“I just tried to get as much on it as I could,” O’Neill said.<\/p>\n
<\/embed><\/object><\/html><\/p>\nO’Neill’s first goal tied the game at 1-1 late in the second period. His late-game heroics answered Lowell junior center Scott Campbell’s power-play goal 7:42 into the third. Campbell stood his ground at the top of the crease and one-timed a pass from behind the net by sophomore center David Vallorani to beat Maine senior goaltender Dave Wilson.<\/p>\n“It’s a disappointing way to end the season, having led on two different occasions in the game,” MacDonald said. <\/p>\nHutton and Wilson were both on top of their game for the third straight night. Wilson stopped 26 shots, while Hutton took the loss in a 33-save effort. Maine held a 32-27 edge in shots-on-goal at the end of regulation and scored on its fourth shot in overtime.<\/p>\n“I was thoroughly impressed with Hutton and their entire team,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said.<\/p>\n“Wilson elevated his game,” O’Neill said. “He played unbelievable.”<\/p>\nMaine battled through the adversity of having to scratch injured junior defenseman and assistant captain Jeff Dimmen from the lineup before the game. Dimmen hurt his leg on a hit along the boards during Saturday’s game. Freshman Matt Mangene, who was recruited as a defenseman but played center for the entire season, replaced Dimmen on the blue line. <\/p>\n“I thought (Mangene) was arguably our best defenseman,” Whitehead said.<\/p>\nMaine also played without suspended starting goaltender Scott Darling and injured junior defenseman Mike Banwell.<\/p>\n“Everyone just stepped up in their own way and we battled through for those guys,” House said.<\/p>\nThe River Hawks shifted the offensive momentum in the second period, outshooting Maine 11-6, but could not take a lead heading into the third period.<\/p>\nLowell freshman right wing Colin Wright solved Wilson 5:48 into the second period. He backhanded a pass out of the corner by sophomore left wing Michael Budd. Of Wright’s seven goals this season, three have come against Maine. <\/p>\n“Both of my pads were just squeezed in,” Wilson said. <\/p>\nMaine equalized at 1-1 on a power play with 6:16 left in the second period. O’Neill’s wrister from the mid-point found its way to the net past Hutton, who was screened in front by Maine freshman right wing Joey Diamond. <\/p>\nMaine took a 16-5 advantage in shots-on-goal into the first intermission, but failed to capitalize on a pair of power plays. Both teams went one-for-five on the power play in the game. <\/p>\n“We really wanted to get it done tonight and take the next step,” Whitehead said. “This was a game that really tested us in a lot of ways.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"University of Maine junior center and captain Tanner House scored 5:10 into overtime Sunday night to send the Black Bears to the Hockey East Tournament Semifinals with a 3-2 win in the decisive third game of their quarterfinal series against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Maine will oppose defending National Champions Boston University next Friday at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
O’Neill’s first goal tied the game at 1-1 late in the second period. His late-game heroics answered Lowell junior center Scott Campbell’s power-play goal 7:42 into the third. Campbell stood his ground at the top of the crease and one-timed a pass from behind the net by sophomore center David Vallorani to beat Maine senior goaltender Dave Wilson.<\/p>\n
“It’s a disappointing way to end the season, having led on two different occasions in the game,” MacDonald said. <\/p>\n
Hutton and Wilson were both on top of their game for the third straight night. Wilson stopped 26 shots, while Hutton took the loss in a 33-save effort. Maine held a 32-27 edge in shots-on-goal at the end of regulation and scored on its fourth shot in overtime.<\/p>\n
“I was thoroughly impressed with Hutton and their entire team,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said.<\/p>\n
“Wilson elevated his game,” O’Neill said. “He played unbelievable.”<\/p>\n
Maine battled through the adversity of having to scratch injured junior defenseman and assistant captain Jeff Dimmen from the lineup before the game. Dimmen hurt his leg on a hit along the boards during Saturday’s game. Freshman Matt Mangene, who was recruited as a defenseman but played center for the entire season, replaced Dimmen on the blue line. <\/p>\n
“I thought (Mangene) was arguably our best defenseman,” Whitehead said.<\/p>\n
Maine also played without suspended starting goaltender Scott Darling and injured junior defenseman Mike Banwell.<\/p>\n
“Everyone just stepped up in their own way and we battled through for those guys,” House said.<\/p>\n
The River Hawks shifted the offensive momentum in the second period, outshooting Maine 11-6, but could not take a lead heading into the third period.<\/p>\n
Lowell freshman right wing Colin Wright solved Wilson 5:48 into the second period. He backhanded a pass out of the corner by sophomore left wing Michael Budd. Of Wright’s seven goals this season, three have come against Maine. <\/p>\n
“Both of my pads were just squeezed in,” Wilson said. <\/p>\n
Maine equalized at 1-1 on a power play with 6:16 left in the second period. O’Neill’s wrister from the mid-point found its way to the net past Hutton, who was screened in front by Maine freshman right wing Joey Diamond. <\/p>\n
Maine took a 16-5 advantage in shots-on-goal into the first intermission, but failed to capitalize on a pair of power plays. Both teams went one-for-five on the power play in the game. <\/p>\n
“We really wanted to get it done tonight and take the next step,” Whitehead said. “This was a game that really tested us in a lot of ways.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
University of Maine junior center and captain Tanner House scored 5:10 into overtime Sunday night to send the Black Bears to the Hockey East Tournament Semifinals with a 3-2 win in the decisive third game of their quarterfinal series against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Maine will oppose defending National Champions Boston University next Friday at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}