ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A driven captain, a freshman goaltending phenom barely old enough to vote and a crowd unlike any other Maine had seen all season were just too much for the Bears to handle.

Michigan captain Jed Ortmeyer scored on a power play with 1:31 remaining in regulation, and freshman goaltender Al Montoya saved 34 Maine shots to lift the Wolverines to a 2-1 victory over the Black Bears Saturday afternoon at noisy Yost Arena.

The tally was the second on the power play in as many years to send Maine home for the season.

“I felt like I owed our team a goal on that one,” said Ortmeyer. “I had let my man escape me earlier and that tied the score. On my goal, I got a bounce right to my stick off of a shot in front. I had a wide open net and poked it in.”

A Jeff Tambellini shot snaked its way through a crowd in front and bounced right to Ortmeyer.

“They definitely got the bounce at the right time,” said Maine goaltender Frank Doyle, who made 25 saves, several of them of the highlight reel variety to keep the game close. “Just before that there had been a couple of blocked shots, so I was able to get ready for the shot, but it came from the side and the rebound bounced right to him.”

“There were calls both ways all game,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “We had opportunities just like they did, and they ended up with one more than we did. Sometimes that’s just the way it is.”

Peppered with questions all week about whether or not a three-week layoff would help or hinder a team that had limped through the final one-third of the season, Maine answered critics early.

Throughout much of the first period, Maine outplayed, outhustled, and plain outgunned Michigan. The Black Bears fired 12 shots at Montoya to just six of Michigan. Just 6:10 into the game, Montoya made a glove save on a 2-on-1 Maine break as the crowd roared in appreciation.

Five minutes later on the power play, Maine got off five shots in a 30-second span, and Montoya was able to scoop all of them up and left no rebounds.

“I came in with the thought that making a couple of stops early to get into a rhythm would be a good thing,” said Montoya. “I had to have confidence that our team would come through. I didn’t think about individual shots. I never keep track of that.”

Where Maine dominated in the first, Michigan picked up the tempo in the second. This time it was Doyle making the big saves, including back-to-back stops on shots from the right circle and the left point.

Maine reestablished the upper hand in the third period, and for a one-minute stretch just more than five minutes in, it looked as though the Black Bears would certainly tack a goal on the scoreboard.

“The effort from beginning to end was enormous,” said Whitehead. “They all played great, especially the seniors.”

“I’m just surprised it didn’t go to overtime like all of the other ones seemed to,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. “They probably deserved to win that game, especially in the third period, but Al, he was up to the task.”

Eric Nystrom first breathed life into the Yost Arena crowd at 6:47 of the third. Just as a Maine power play finished, a pass came out to Derek Damon at the point. The puck bounced over his stick and started to roll toward Doyle. Nystrom and Damon locked sticks and went tumbling to the ice, but Michael Woodford swooped in behind the play and got a shot in on Doyle. With Doyle down on the ice, Tom Reimann came in from the side boards and made a save on the Woodford shot. That rebound bounced back out to Nystrom, who slipped the puck between Damon’s legs, past Doyle and into the net.

“I saw him shoot when I was down and Tom stopped it,” said Doyle. “I almost got back to the next shot, and I thought Derek for sure was going to block it, but it went right through his legs.”

Colin Shields scored his first goal since Dec. 15 to even the score with 3:54 to play in the game on a nice cross-ice feed from Martin Kariya, and it looked as though the game would head to overtime.

“With a game as tight as that was, you are wanting to look toward overtime,” said Shields. “That we were able to break through was a big relief to everyone on the bench.”

Travis Wight hauled down a Michigan forward as he broke for the net with 2:02 remaining, affording Michigan one more power-play chance, and the Wolverines took advantage.

Even a pulled goaltender for the final 1:23 couldn’t help the Black Bears salvage their season.

jpelletier