LEWISTON — The Maryland Black Bears won a shootout, literally and figuratively.

The Black Bears overcame a first-period deficit to defeat the Maine Nordiques 6-5 in a shootout at The Colisee in Lewiston on Friday night in an NAHL East Division game.

“We had a good talk before the trip about never getting down and being there for your teammates, and just bouncing back,” Maryland coach Clint Mylymok said. “I thought the bench was really good, there was no panic, just a lot of good words by our leaders and our young guys, too. We are at that point late in the year where they are allowed to talk and be leaders. I thought the whole bench was really good.”

Conor Cole scored in the fourth round of the shootout to win the game. Jack Blanchett also scored in the first round for Maryland (27-16-10, 64 points).

Auburn’s Reese Farrell had the Nordiques’ only goal of the shootout, in the second round.

“I don’t think Farrell has missed a shootout attempt since he’s been in the league,” Mylymok said. “We know what he does, he has good deception.”

Aidan Connolly helped the Nordiques (17-24-10, 44 points) take a 1-0 lead five minutes into the first period. He retrieved the puck from the right sideboards and sent a crisp pass to the slot to Patrick Schmiedlin, who tapped the puck home.

Schmiedlin continued to make his office in the slot when forward Zion Green came down the left wing on the power play and sent a pass to a waiting Schmiedlin for a 2-0 lead 9:25 into the first period.

Both goals involved key offensive players.

“Those guys create offense almost every game; we just need to hit details in all three zones,” Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “I really like Tristan Fasig’s game tonight, I thought he was a good distributor and defensively accountable. I mean, he’s dominant on the dot.”

The Black Bears started chipping away at the deficit and Adam Schankula scored his first goal of the season 10:46 into the opening period.

Brendan Gibbons scored the Nordiques’ second power-play goal of the first period when he redirected a Nicholas Bernardo point shot past Maryland goalie Mike Morelli 13 minutes into the first period. Farrell also had an assist.

Maryland scored two goals late in the first period — one by Leo Schwartz, and Aidan McDowell had one on the power play to tie the game at 3-3.

The Black Bears continued the momentum in the second period. Elliot Lareau found the back of the net in the opening two minutes for a 4-3 lead.

“We were just being consistent and having constant zone time in their zone,” Ryan Bottrill, who had an assist on the goal, said. “We got a lot of offense because of that.”

As the period went along, things settled down for both teams.

Nordiques forward Jack Kurrle helped change the momentum when he created a turnover in the neutral zone and had a partial breakaway. Maryland defenders took the shot attempt away, and Kurrle lost his balance but chased the puck down behind Maryland’s net. He sent the puck in front of the net, and forward Caden Pattison had a couple of chances but was denied. Jonny Meiers then jammed it past Morelli 13:19 into the second period to tie the game up at 4-4.

“A really emotional goal, actually,” Pinchevsky said. “Some guys have highs and lows in their season; when you see these big moments that really boost their confidence and their teammates are happy for them, those are emotional goals. That’s an emotional goal that we needed. We are happy for Jonny.”

Bottrill fired a shot from the high slot to give Maryland a 5-4 lead.

“I think we had a really good forecheck that helped us and our (defense) was really aggressive on the blue line to get the puck a little higher in the offensive zone,” Bottrill said. “I thought our whole line was good coming out of the zone, too.”

Gibbons scored his second goal to tie the game 5-5. Green sent the puck to the front of the net and Gibbons happened to get his stick on the ice. The puck then hit Gibbons’ blade of the stick and trickled past the goal line.

Gibbons has 12 goals and six assists in 13 games dating back to Jan. 28.

“He definitely has a knack for the net, he has worked on it, and he has scored at every level,” Pinchevsky said of Gibbons.

Late in the third period, Ansel “Gus” Holt made a key save for the Nordiques, stopping Schankula with three minutes to go.

In the overtime session, Morelli had a breakaway stop of his own on Filip Wiberg.

The Nordiques had a power play with 2:10 remaining in the overtime but couldn’t convert.

“We are really confident in the number-one power play in the division,” Pinchevsky said. “We got plenty of deliveries (to the net) and Morelli exhausted himself to the point where I thought Clint might have made the switch just for the shootout.”

Morelli made 40 saves and Holt stopped 36 shots.

The Nordiques were 2-for-6 on the man advantage and Maryland was 1-for-2.

The teams meet again Saturday at The Colisee.

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories