By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

PORTLAND – What can Brown do for you?

Well, for much of Wednesday night’s hockey game the Brown University men’s hockey team delivered nothing but frustration to the University of Maine.

That all changed though in the final eight minutes, 56 seconds.

The Black Bears drought ended with two goals in just over four minutes in a 2-1 win at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“I hope nobody had a heart attack in the crowd,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “We certainly waited a long time to finish that game off.”

Rob Bellamy and John Hopson erased a 1-0 Brown lead with goals 4:20 apart late in the third period to end a Maine’s three-game losing streak.

The third period rally came with the Black Bears top goalscorer, Lisbon’s Greg Moore, out of the game after receiving a major penalty and game misconduct.

“Greg is a phenomenal captain,” said Derek Damon, who set up the Hopson game-winner. “In between the second and third period, he said You’ve got to stay positive.’ We did. We stayed positive. No one got down on themselves even though things weren’t clicking out there. That’s what happens when a team has adversity. We lost one of our top players, and we were still battling.

Maine, which had scored just five goals in its last three games, not including a 7-2 exhibition win, finally got on the board with 8:56 left. After the Black Bears put pressure on Brown goaltender Kevin Kliman, Rob Bellamy banked a loose puck off Kliman and into the net.

With the crowd of 6,661 already frenzied, sensing a comeback, the Black Bears kept the pressure on. After a Hopson penalty nixed a Maine man-advantage, he made up for it just after leaving the box. Damon banked a pass off the boards for Hopson, who got behind the defense and went in alone on Kliman. Hopson wristed the game-winner to the top corner with 4:36 left for his fourth of the year.

“Derek picked up the loose puck,” said Hopson. “I gave him a yell to chip it off the wall. He laid it out there for me. I took it in and put it over his glove.”

The rally came after losing Moore early in the third. He earned a major penalty for hitting from behind and a game misconduct for ramming Brown’s Pete LeCain into the boards in the Black Bears offensive end. Brown couldn’t put the Black Bears away on the advantage and only fueled the Maine rally.

“It all started with the big kill,” said Damon. “It seemed like everyone was going off the bench. Everyone was feeding off each other. We were blocking shots. Matt (Lundin) really played well on the penalty.”

Lundin finished with 28 saves and helped keep Maine in the game early as Brown controlled much of the first two periods.

“We did not play exactly how I would have liked, but at the same time Matt Lundin was fabulous,” said Whitehead. “He really gave the guys a lift. We would not have won that gave without his performance.”

Lundin helped preserve the scoreless tie in the first period, stopping all 10 Brown shots. He made a sprawling save on Cory Caouette and came up with clutch saves on a pair of Brown power plays, including a Sean Dersch bid on a two-on-one.

Maine was held to just one shot over the last 14 minutes, and came up empty on a late power play that included 20 seconds with a two-man advantage.

Brown took the 1-0 lead just one minute into the second period, moments after a Maine power play ended. Jeff Prough took a Paul Crosty pass off the boards and snuck in behind the defense for a wide open wrister inside the right post.

“I thought each period we generated more chances,” said Whitehead. “That’s kind of been our M.O. this season. We’ve been very slow starters and we started slow tonight, but we’ve been strong finishers.”