UNH catches a break on a controversial goal.
DURHAM, N.H. – Another visit to the Whittemore Center for Maine, and another controversial goal, this time in favor of the University of New Hampshire.
Down 3-2 midway through the second period, New Hampshire’s Nathan Martz blasted a shot from the blue line that hit Maine goaltender Frank Doyle’s pads, trickled through and appeared to make it to the goal line.
The light came on briefly but didn’t stay on, and the referee, who was back at the blue line, never blew his whistle. Two or three seconds later, however, the referee signaled a stoppage in play and ruled it a goal.
Maine never recovered. UNH piled on three more goals in the second period and rode Michael Ayers’ solid goaltending the rest of the way as the Wildcats doubled up the Black Bears 6-3 in an early-season Hockey East matchup.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” said UNH coach Dick Umile. “To win last night at Boston University and then beat Maine, (who was) coming in as the No. 1 team in the country, that was a great weekend.”
The win is a measure of revenge for New Hampshire, which lost a game to Maine last season on home ice after Lucas Lawson kicked in the game-winner from just outside the crease. The referee ruled that the contact with the foot was incidental, and therefore a goal.
On Saturday, it was New Hampshire’s turn for a favorable ruling. Whitehead didn’t dispute the goal after the game.
“Certainly you think of (last season),” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead, “but the difference is that this one, I think, was a legitimate goal, whereas Lucas’ last year wasn’t. The problem in that second period was that we got caught in a lot of one-on-one situations, and they have some very talented forwards.”
One night after a physical 4-1 loss to Boston College on Friday night, the Black Bears started to tire midway through the game. New Hampshire plays on an Olympic-sized ice sheet, and the extra skating combined with the rough-and-tumble nature of both Friday and Saturday’s games took its toll on the Maine forwards.
New Hampshire never relented, either, trotting out what some consider to be the best forward tandem in the country in Steve Saviano and Sean Collins against Maine’s top line of Greg Moore, Derek Damon and Todd Jackson.
Collins finished with three points on the night, while Saviano also had three.
Maine stunned the capacity crowd just 30 seconds into the game when Damon batted home a rebound past Ayers on a shot by Moore to give the Black Bears a 1-0 lead.
UNH bounced back at 3:22 when Brian Yandle blasted a slap shot from the left point past Doyle to tie the score.
Maine retaliated with two more goals for a 3-1 edge.
“We got caught flat-footed in the first period,” said Umile. “They have a lot of speed on the front line, and we were losing in the transistion game. We came back and played outstanding in the second period.”
That middle stanza is when UNH erupted. Martz tied the score with the delayed goal at 11:41, and the Wildcats poured in three more in the next eight minutes.
In the third, Doyle and the rest of the Maine team caught their breath and prevented additional scoring, but the damage was done.
“We played two very good teams this weekend,” said Whitehead. “We played much better (Saturday), and we can’t leave saying we didn’t work hard, which is a good thing.”
Maine will host two Hockey East games next weekend, against Northeastern on Friday and UMass/Lowell on Sunday.
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