Following Friday’s loss to the New Jersey Titans, Maine Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said he hoped the players learned from their first overtime game of the season.
The Nordiques found themselves in another overtime contest Saturday, and this this time came out on the winning end when Tony Achille’s goal gave them a 6-5 win in an NAHL East Division contest in Middletown, New Jersey.
Pinchevsky said the lesson was to play for one and another and battle until the final whistle.
“We work for our family, we work for each other and we fight for each other, no matter what it takes,” Pinchevsky said. “We had to do that to win the game tonight. Some of the success last night had to do with that, but we had to go a full (60 minutes of effort tonight).”
Achille’s game-winner came a little more than three minutes into overtime. It was his second goal of the game and ninth of the season.
“Tony has an unrivaled work ethic and great foot speed, and he’s extremely hard to play against,” Pinchevsky said. “He loves to go to war every single day, and Division I coaches are taking notice.”
Maine (12-8-1, 25 points) entered the third period down 5-4, but Filip Wiberg tied the game with a power play goal at the 12:21 mark that was set up by Brendan Gibbons and Henrik Hallberg.
“(Filip) is extremely smart from that bumper position (in the middle third of the 1-3-1 power play formation),” Pinchevsky said. “When you have (defenseman) Nick Bernardo at the top of the zone, (Wiberg) has to wait and present a target (for Bernardo to make a pass), and (Wiberg) scored a big goal for us.”
The Nordiques were 1 for 3 on the man advantage, while the Titans (14-11-1, 29 points) were 0 for 3.
Marcus Sang scored to put the Titans up 1-0 early in the first period.
Maine responded in the middle of the period, with Achille tying the game 1-1 by shooting the puck past New Jersey goalie Zakari Brice (36 saves). Oliver Genest had the assist.
Hallberg potted his 10th goal of the season to give the Nordiques a 2-1 lead just past the midway point of the opening period.
New Jersey’s Eric Charpentier tied the game early in the second period. Nearly five minutes later, Anthony Calafiore, who has committed to play for the University of Maine, gave the Titans a 3-2 lead.
Forward Patrick Schmiedlin responded for the Nordiques, with John-Paul Steele recording the assist, at the 7:27 mark into the second period. Gibbons put the Nordiques up 4-3 two minutes later.
Once again, the Titans scored a pair of goals and took a 5-4 advantage. Charpentier notched his second goal of the contest 30 seconds after Gibbons’ goal at the 9:53 mark and .
Levente Keresztes had the Titans’ fifth goal later in the second period, beating Nordiques goalie Thomas Heaney (37 saves).
The Nordiques are on the road again on Thursday to start a three-game set with the Johnstown Tomahawks.
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