Bananas stares down the Terriers before the opening puck drop Saturday night at a sold-out Alfond Arena. (Photo courtesy of Simon French — UMaine Athletics).

20.6 seconds.

The #7 Maine Black Bears were 20.6 seconds away from sweeping their long-time rival, the #11 Boston University Terriers, out of Orono and back to Beantown empty-handed.

But up stepped Central Maine’s public enemy number one, Terrier co-Captain Shane Lachance, who banged home a greasy rebound to knot the score even at the game’s death, shocking the typically deafening, sold-out Alfond crowd into stunned silence.

“Kind of lucky it popped right onto my stick, and the goalie didn’t see it, but that one feels good,” Lachance said.

Maine was 20.6 seconds away from earning what would have been a well-deserved victory and six out of six Hockey East points from the weekend. Instead, the Black Bears came away from the series with four conference points. The contest ended in a 2-2 tie after a scoreless five-minute overtime frame before the Terriers picked up the extra point, winning the shootout 1-0.

“When you lose in the shootout, it always feels like a loss, but our guys understand. When you’re a couple of seconds away from a win, it always hurts more, but we’ll be alright,” Head Coach Ben Barr said after the game. 

It was a tie that felt like a loss. A stinging loss at that.

“Right now, it hurts a little. The guys are pretty upset. But that’s just how we are; we are pretty competitive, and we want to win every single night,” senior forward Nolan Renwick said.

The result is particularly painful, not only because of its dramatic finish but because the Black Bears outplayed the Terriers for much of the game and were head and shoulders the better team in the third period.

“I thought we, for the most part, played our style of hockey, and hockey is hockey sometimes, and it doesn’t go your way at the end, but it is what it is,” Barr said. “There’s nothing glaring that you’re upset about outside of the outcome a little bit.”

Maine was miles better. They broke out of their zone from the night before, didn’t hand BU many free-scoring opportunities from puck mistakes, won their one-on-one battles with physical ferocity, and got downhill toward the Terrier net in a hurry and with great effectiveness and efficiency.

Up 2-1 to begin the final period, the third frame was perhaps Maine’s best period of the weekend. The Black Bears dictated control of the play, managed the puck brilliantly, and entered their offensive zone as cleanly and efficiently as they have all season. They wholly limited BU’s offensive chances to the perimeter, suffocated their limited zone time, and simply looked like the better hockey team.

“[Maine] did a good job defensively. We didn’t have a ton going on in the third. But we found a way to stick with it and bang that one home late,” BU Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said.

The Black Bears couldn’t find a way to capitalize on a wealth of grade-A scoring chances in the latter half of the game. They were not able to put the game out of BU's reach even while they had the Terriers on the ropes.

Maine did most everything well except stick the puck in the back of the net.

“I thought we played hard and we had some good looks, but it wasn’t enough at the end of the day,” Renwick admitted. “I thought we had plenty of chances. Maybe if we bury one of those in the third or late in the second, it’s a different ballgame.”

A fiery affair

Saturday evening was old-time rock-em’-sock-em’ hockey at its best.

It was a fiery, black-and-blue affair that was heavy-hitting and full of red-hot hatred right from the puck drop. While Friday’s first period had the look of two teams feeling each other out, on Saturday, it was full-tilt right from the hop, full of snarling intensity between the whistles, with even less love lost after them.

The blood-boiling emotions carried up from the ice and into the crowd, which had a fair share of Terrier red mixed in with the sea of blue and white, mirrored the chirping that was going on at ice level and between the benches.

No love was lost between these two long-time rivals during a second-period skirmish. (Photo courtesy of Patience Hanley — UMaine Athletics)

Neither team nor fanbase was particularly pleased with a number of refereeing decisions in a penalty-filled game that was teetering on the edge of exploding out of control. The second period was especially temper-filled, marked by sixteen penalty minutes being called in the middle frame alone, with even more no-calls.

Pandolfo and the Terrier bench were constantly barking with the officials after just about every whistle when things weren’t going their way. For the second night in a row, the BU players and coaching staff swarmed around the referees after the period’s end, following them off the ice demanding answers to their interrogation.

Meanwhile, the Alfond Faithful was especially incensed after a crippling second-period hit on Josh Nadeau left the sophomore forward slumped on the ice, his face bleeding,  but no penalty on the play was called. Nadeau slowly skated off to the dressing room under his own power; he remained there for the rest of the game.

“[It’s an] upper body injury. I’m not sure exactly what it is yet. He took a big hit,” Barr updated after the game. Nadeau was up and walking around the tunnel to the dressing room after the contest, possibly unable to return due to the concussion protocol.

Especially during the second period, it looked as though the heated emotions were getting the better of the Terriers. The BU team was once again extremely undisciplined and immature, handing the Black Bears four power plays during the game and fortunate not to be short-handed even more.

Meanwhile, Maine was mature, keeping their cool and their emotions in check amid the volatile cauldron of the Alfond’s raging atmosphere.

“I thought the guys played hard; I thought we were pretty composed. Not a lot of stuff after the whistles,” Barr said about how his team handled their emotions during the fiery affair.

A new look power play

After Boston University’s talented young forward Cole Eiserman slammed a rebound in the low-slot past Albin Boija midway through the first period to put BU up 1-0, Maine quickly answered a few minutes later.

After going one-for-six on the man advantage in Friday’s victory, they only needed one shot on their first power play of the game to get things back to level.

A mad scramble in front of BU goaltender Mathieu Caron’s net had Black Bears and Terriers alike flooded around the crease. But Renwick, reading the net-mouth chaos, came in from the high-slot to float a backhand over the sprawled bodies. His shot fluttered gently into the back of the net to the roar of the Alfond crowd.

Nolan Renwick floats a backhanded shot over BU’s goalie Matthieu Caron during a first-period power play. (Photo courtesy of Anthony DelMonaco — UMaine Athletics).

Maine’s power play has been outstanding this season, coming into the weekend scoring at a rate of 24.3% while almost always creating plenty of good scoring looks when they don’t put the puck in the back of the net. Of the eleven power play goals Maine has scored this season, every single one has come from the first PP unit of Thomas Freel, Taylor Makar, Harrison Scott, Charlie Russell, and Brandon Holt.

Meanwhile, Maine’s second power play line has yet to score this season.

Looking to get them going, Assistant Coach Jason Fortier, who runs the power play, began tinkering with the personnel on the second unit this weekend, putting out five forwards and no defensemen, something you don’t often see at any level of hockey.

“That unit has struggled a bit this year. We did it last night, and they had some good looks. We’re trying to figure it out until we can come up with something. That was really good to sequence there on that goal,” Barr said.

This new-look second unit consists of Renwick in front of the net, Lynden Breen playing the bumper role in the slot, Ross Mitton and Sully Scholle each on their off-wings, with Nadeau controlling the point. It’s a risky move by Fortier but one that has already paid dividends.

“It was [Fortier’s] idea. Josh is obviously a very skilled player with the puck so he’s capable of playing up top. With five forwards, we have to be careful because we all have an offensive mindset; you don’t want to get caught cheating the game, you can easily give up a shorthanded goal. But today, we were able to find a little bit of success, collapsing on the net, [putting] pucks to the net, and I was able to find a rebound,” Renwick explained.

Fourth line fortunes

All of Maine’s forwards and defensive lines played well and were able to build off the momentum they set for each other shift after shift.

But it was Maine’s fourth liners who were able to play heroes in the Black Bears go-ahead goal midway through the second period.

The line has consisted of left-winger Sully Scholle and center Oskar Komarov for the past few weeks, with Anthony Calafiore mainly on the right wing, but last week at BC Calefiore was rotated out for Thomas Pichette.

Finnish freshman Komarov has had a really impressive start to his Black Bear career, not looking out of place one bit. He has an effortless skating stride that enables him to sneak in on the forecheck, pressuring the puck and forcing the opposition to cough it up. His big frame and dogged forecheck were on full display in Saturday’s game at Northeastern when he stripped the puck to set up Scholle for the all-important game-tying goal in Maine’s shootout win.

Komarov also scored a wraparound goal against BC, the first of his career, when Pichette’s nicely set up play allowed Komarov to throw the puck into the crease, where it bounced off a BC skate and into the net.

Calafiore, who came back into the lineup this weekend, replacing Pichette, is a bottomless ball of energy that never stops working hard, not shying away from the physical game even with his 5’8” frame.

Meanwhile, Scholle, a highly skilled offensive-minded player, has the stick-handling ability to make plays seemingly out of nothing.

Anthony Calafiore skates away in celebration of his first goal of the season. (Photo courtesy of Patience Hanley — UMaine Athletics)

It was well deserved that this trio combined for Maine’s second goal Saturday night, putting the Black Bears up 2-1 when Scholle, rolling up the half-boards to the point, threw a shot through traffic onto the net. His wrister bounced off Caron, falling to Komarov in the low slot. Komarov had the wherewithal to quickly settle the puck, sending it across the crease to Calafiore at the back post to put Maine into the lead.

Maine’s strength in depth, which is miles better than it has ever been under Barr, is really starting to come together. All three of these fourth-liners have secured their first goal of the season and almost always put in dependable performances.

A better BU

While Maine’s performance was improved in many areas from Friday, so was BU’s. Friday nights have been a struggle for the Terriers this season, but they have almost always bounced back with a successful response the next night.

“[BU] played hard. When you lose the first game, there’s always a little bit extra in the second. They were really pushing,” Barr said about the Terriers' Saturday night efforts.

Boston University's big bodies were a lot more physical on Saturday, especially in the first period, sending Maine an immediate message: BU was going to throw everything they had at them.

While Maine’s 32 shots on goal almost equaled their 34 from Friday, the Terriers were much better at limiting the Black Bears’ chances from dangerous areas of the ice. BU did a terrific job sacrificing the body and blocking a total of 18 shots on Saturday night.

“We wanted to make sure we were blocking shots, and our guys did a really good job of doing that,” Pandolfo said. “[Maine] did have some zone time, there’s no question, but for the most part, we did a good job keeping them to the outside.”

Meanwhile, the Black Bear shots that did get on the net, were corralled effectively by goaltender Mathieu Caron, who was on top of his game.

Caron has had a leaky start to his season, coming into the weekend with a 3.61 goals allowed average and a save percentage of only .880%.

The senior’s shaky start forced Pandolfo to start Max Lacroix, who only played in one game last year and was in the net for BU’s last two games, including Friday night, where he gave up four goals.

But on Saturday, Pandolfo desperately needed his big-time goaltender to step up, and Caron did exactly that in a bounce-back performance for the British Columbia native, standing on his head and keeping his team in the game.

“He was excellent, good for him. He had a little bit of a reset; he didn’t play the last two games,” Pandolfo said.

Credit where credit is due. Even though Maine had BU on the ropes for much of the third period, the Terriers held on for der life, refusing to quit, and eventually were rewarded for their tenacity.

“This is a tough place to play. This can give your group confidence, sticking with it being down 2-1 for quite a stretch. We kept coming and kept pushing to find a way,” Pandolfo said.

After Caron stonewalled Breen and Ryan Greene scored past Boija to seal BU’s shootout win, the Terrier netminder made sure to turn around to the Balcony above him, holding one finger to his mouth, shushing the student section that had been taunting him all evening. Lachance, who was a pesty thorn in Maine’s side all night, more than enjoyed getting one over the Alfond Faithful.

“It’s a tough place to play; these fans are really loud,” Lachance admitted. “It was crazy, I was surprised how many people were here for warmups, coming out booing you. It’s pretty cool, it’s what you live for; it’s why you play college hockey. I enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun.”

Matthieu Caron, basking in the Terriers’ shootout win, returns the Balcony’s jeers (Photo courtesy of Joe Eachus — WTBU)

Still a work in progress

All in all, while the Black Bears are disappointed not to win, they are still taking a lot of positives away from this weekend, bouncing back from the rough time at Boston College.

“In terms of where we are heading, I think it was a step in the right direction in terms of bouncing back, but I think we still have a ways to go. We can take another step as a team, and I can take another step individually. Close out those games and make sure we’re not just coming away with four; we want those six points,” Renwick said.

They limited BU’s grade-A chances, gave one of the most skilled teams in the country everything they could handle. They got two more terrific performances from Boija who has quickly become Maine’s best player and one of the premier netminders in the country, and showed that their style of playing can give even the best teams in college hockey a run for their money.

“It’s a learning experience for us against a top team in the country,” David Breazeale said.

However, the Black Bears' struggles in closing out games in which they have the lead is still very much a work in progress. Maine’s game management was definitely much better Saturday night, but it still needs to improve in order to get the job done.

“That’s kind of been the trend the past few third periods, and they’ve been able to get that goal. Obviously, it happened down in BC and two games this weekend,” Breazeale said. “We were able to shut that down for the majority of the game, but we have to be able to do that for a full sixty minutes,” Breazeale said.

Breazeale trusts that his team should be able to turn this trend around, noting that Maine prides themselves on their conditioning and, therefore, should be able to finish games strong, all while their style of play continues to grind down the opponent.

“I think we have the legs for it. I think we’re a well-conditioned team; we play really heavy in the third periods, it’s just finding a way to get that last [goal] if we can,” Breazeale said.

These Black Bears are perfectionists, and anything less than total victory is a lossAs legendary Maine Head Coach Shawn Walsh once said: “The University of Maine doesn’t accept ties like it doesn’t accept losses.”

These Black Bears have undoubtedly embraced Walsh’s mandate.