Boston’s TD Garden was transformed into Alfond South on Thursday as Black Bear Nation watched the Maine win on Garden ice for the first time since 2012. (Photo: Dmitri Chambers - ‘Til The Rafters Ring)

As Thursday evening crept towards Friday morning, the Maine Black Bears and the Northeastern Huskies remained deadlocked with three goals apiece in the second overtime period of the Hockey East Tournament semifinal at Boston’s TD Garden.

The Black Bears had been running riot on the Garden ice for much of the third period and, through both overtime frames, unleashed a mighty monsoon of offensive pressure directed at Northeastern’s goaltender, Cameron Whitehead, and the Huskies’ defense, who were left hanging on by a thread.

Maine was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Whitehead, totaling 61 shots on goal over the course of the evening, including 36 from the start of the third period onward. Northeastern meanwhile managed 36 total shots on net, 17 of which came after the second intermission.

The Black Bears had the Huskies completely on the run but couldn’t capitalize on the mountain of chances they’d created and finally squeeze the puck over the goalline.

Stop me if you’ve heard that scenario before during this season.

In the third period and the two overtimes, Maine created grade-A chance after golden opportunity. Nonetheless, they were continually thwarted as if there was a sinister force field around the Northeastern net playing a cruel trick on the Black Bears.

Thomas Freel missed the net on an awning cage late in the third period, Lynden Breen was narrowly foiled, and Harrison Scott’s eyes lit up late in the first overtime when he ripped a shot from a cross-crease pass that looked destined to be the winner but was denied as his stick shattered just when Black Bear Nation was rising in anticipatory celebration. Then, in double overtime, Luke Antonacci was denied by more of Whitehead’s heroics, after which Bodie Nobes pinged a point shot off the post to the agony of the thousands of traveling Mainers who had turned the Garden into Alfond South.

The most difficult thing to do in sports is to end another team’s season.

Northeastern, being outside the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, has been playing do-or-die hockey for weeks now, knowing that their only shot at a National Tournament berth was to win the Hockey East Championship and earn an automatic bid to the big dance.

The Huskies were completely on the ropes, playing desperately and for their lives. Every time it looked as though Maine was going to finish them off and put the final nail in Northeastern’s coffin with one last hammer blow, they kept popping that nail out, refusing to be knocked out and sent home.

But Maine didn’t allow themselves to feel discouraged and instead stuck to their game, keeping the pedal pressed fully to the metal, all gas, no brakes, full throttle.

“There was a pile of shots and multiple opportunities in overtime where I think we could have scored. It would have been easy to get frustrated and throw your hands in the air and say, ‘Hey, why aren’t these going in.’ First of all, I have to give some credit to Northeastern’s goalie; he played a heck of a game. But we just stuck with it, stuck with it, stuck with the process,” senior forward Nolan Renwick said after the game.

Scratching and clawing for their lives and the continuation of their season, Northeastern heroically threw themselves in front of Black Bear shot after shot, bravely blocking a mind-boggling 42 shots that will leave the Huskies black and blue but able to keep their chins held high in pride for the way they battled.

“I’m proud of the sacrifices guys made to do whatever they could, and Cameron Whitehead obviously had a great game, so I’m really proud of him as well,” Northeastern Head Coach Jerry Keefe said. “He responded and showed up in the big moments when it mattered the most. That’s what you need your goaltender to do, and he gave us a chance to win.”

But the Black Bears, with their hearts as large as the State of Maine and character flowing as wide as the Charles River, were not going to let anything get between them and their championship aspirations.

The moment of magic

At 11:19 pm, midway through double-overtime, the clock struck midnight on the marathon contest and Northeastern’s season.

Nolan Renwick carried the puck through the neutral zone, over the spoked-B at center ice, and across the blueline into Northeastern territory. After gaining the zone, Renwick interchanged with Charlie Russell, feeding him with a drop-pass just inside the blue line. Russell tore down-low, behind the net, and back up the right-wing side, shielding the puck on his backhand from a Huskies pursuer the whole way.

By the time Russell had reached the top of the right faceoff circle, Renwick had parked all 6’3” 215 lbs of his Saskatchewan farm-boy frame at the back post, with one knee on the ice and his stick blade in position begging for a redirection.

Russell, stopping on a dime and swiveling back towards the corner from which he’d just come, saw Renwick choking up on his stick at the far side of the goal crease and threw the puck along the ice into the blue paint.

The centering feed dashed across his crease, with Renwick’s hands were soft enough to get wood on rubber, or perhaps even his glove, and zip a bank-shot past the Northeastern netminder for the biggest goal in over a decade of Black Bears hockey, breaking Huskies’ hearts and sending Maine to the Hockey East Championship Game for the first time since 2012.

Crouching low to the ice while choking up on his stick, Nolan Renwick‘s double-overtime bank-shot goal sent Maine to the Hockey East Championship Game. (Photo: Matt Dewkett - College Hockey News).

The Black Bears’ battering ram finally broke Northeastern’s back.

“You get into the second overtime, and we thought it was going to be a greasy goal to end her, so I just went and parked myself at the side of the net, and Charlie Russell made a great play there. He saw me and he threw it to that back post, and I was lucky it went off me and was able to end the game,” Renwick said.

Alongside Thomas Freel, Nolan Renwick roars in celebration of his game-winning double-overtime tally, sending Alfond South into chaotic celebrations. (Photos: Matt Dewkett - College Hockey News)

Black Bear Nation, which accounted for at least 75% of the Garden crowd, leaped towards the heavens in unison. Arms raised high in triumph, the sea of blue roared a mighty Mainer roar that could have been heard all the way up in Presque Isle. Jumping in jubilee like little kids playing pond hockey, Maine’s bench leaped over the boards in ecstasy, with dashes of blue-and-white racing towards Renwick while others hopped the other way, leaping into the arms of Albin Boija and toppling their goaltender.

“That’s the goal I dream of every night this year going to bed, just trying to help our team win games and trying to get to this moment that we have tomorrow,” Renwick said.

A gleeful Owen Fowler prepares to leap onto his celebrating teammates as the Maine bench pours onto the ice, following Renwick’s goal. (Photo: Matt Dewkett - College Hockey News)

Unyielding will to win

The ecstatic elation that the Black Bears and their fans felt by the time midnight rolled around was nowhere to be seen during the second intermission just a few hours before.

Maine had just squandered a 2-0 lead when the Huskies howled to even by way of a Dylan Hrycowian power-play goal early in the second and a Cam Lund even-strength gut-punch in the final minute of the middle frame.

The second period began so brightly for Maine, who raced out to a two-goal lead early in the frame when a Breen shot fortuitously bounced off the side of Northeastern’s net and fell kindly back to Breen in the slot. Breen’s shot was kicked back into the middle of the ice by Whitehead’s left leg pad, but Owen Fowler took out the trash and cleaned up the rebound, slamming home the second-effort opportunity for his second goal of the night.

Fowler’s first goal came late in the first period, moments after he was freed from the penalty box. Just as Fowler’s penalty expired, the Black Bears regained possession of the puck through Harrison Scott, getting his stick in a passing lane and picking off a Northeastern pass to the point. Scott, with his head up, immediately found Fowler straight out of the box with a pass that sprung him into the Huskies’ end all alone on a breakaway. Fowler, a native of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, slotted a low-hard shot through Whitehead’s wickets to send Alfond South into first-period delirium.

“He finds a way to score big goals. He’s done that this year for us in big moments. He’s a local kid, and I think he enjoys playing in this building, so that was big-time by him, getting those two,” Head Coach Ben Barr said about Fowler’s pair of tallies.

Owen Fowler wheels away in celebration after slotting home a breakaway chance for Maine’s opening goal. (Photo: Matt Dewkett - College Hockey News)

But heading into the second intermission, Black Bear Nation was left in shocked disbelief, their two-goal advantage a fleeting and distant memory with the score now tied at two-apiece.

Things went from bad to worse for Maine early in the third period when Cumberland, Maine, native Andy Moore pounced on a rebound to emphatically slam the Huskies into the lead with his first collegiate goal, leaving his fellow Mainers in stunned silence.

“Moorsey is one of the most respected guys in that room. He’s a gamer, he works, he comes to work every day, he’s a leader on our team, and I thought that gave our team such a big boost too to take the lead,” Keefe said about Moore. “I know the guys were excited for him; he earned it.”

Throwing away a two-goal lead after dominating the first period would have been enough to break the will of plenty of teams. But not these Black Bears. They thrive with their backs against the wall and the adversity mounting.

From Barr’s perspective, Maine’s sheer will to win elevated their game into the stratosphere as the Black Bears responded to falling behind with a pushback so mighty it could have moved mountains. What followed was the Black Bears' most dizzyingly dominant display of heavy metal, lightning speed, and thunderous hockey of the season. Maine buzzed all over the Huskies, looking like a team possessed, completely suffocating, and strangling Northeastern in their own end with their bread-and-butter battering forecheck.

“We have an ability to really put the pressure on when we’re working. I thought that as soon as we went down 3-2, the game changed. Now, why do we have to go down 3-2 after being up 2-0 is a problem, but you just felt it on the bench as soon as they scored that third goal,” Barr said. “That speaks to the character and the passion they have in that locker room.”

No matter how dominant a team has been in the regular season, you never truly know how it is going to react when it comes to playing under the bright lights of college hockey’s biggest stages. It is especially hard to predict how a team is going to respond to the gut punch of squandering a 2-0 lead.

Many of even the best teams in the nation would have shriveled up and died, unable to will themselves into sparking a comeback.

But these Black Bears love it. They live for it.

As the pressure mounted, the big stage shone even brighter, and the stakes of every minute, every shift, and every play ratcheted the wager to nauseating heights. Maine simply rose to the occasion and played their best hockey of the season when it mattered the most.

“These guys are phenomenal kids, a lot of them have turned themselves from obscurity into a team that can go and potentially win a championship tomorrow. It’s incredible; it’s really a tribute to their character,” Barr said, tearing up when talking about his inspirational team. “After we went down in that game, those guys weren’t going to be denied, so it’s really the character in the locker room that allowed us to have these opportunities. I can’t say enough good things about our leaders and how much they care.”

Full of pride, an emotional Head Coach, Ben Barr, speaks about his team’s inspirational performance following Maine’s Hockey East Tournament semifinal victory. (Photo: Matt Dewkett - College Hockey News)

The screw was being turned, and it was only a matter of time before it broke through with an equalizing goal.

With Maine’s tails up, purring with confidence, the Black Bears blitzed the Northeastern net, smelling blood in the water and a third-period equalizer. Sensing their team’s optimism, Alfond South, who were left in stunned silence just minutes before, rallied behind their team’s momentous play with a magnificent wave of support. Black Bear Nation had flooded the streets of Boston, arriving by plane, train, car, and boat. A significant portion of Maine’s population went missing, with thousands of Mainers traveling south to invade TD Garden and significantly outnumber, out support, and out cheer the rival fanbases, which paled in comparison to the blue horde.

Finding themselves practically playing a home game 250 miles away from campus, the Black Bears fed off the electric atmosphere of Alfond South.

“You can tell how much the State of Maine cares, and that gives us more juice than you could ever imagine. For them to stay here until midnight, almost, and come down four hours or, for some, probably six hours from the tip of Maine, the support we get is incredible, and we really feed off of it. It’s special for not just our team but for everyone,” Barr said.

Cresting a wave of unstoppable momentum sparked by the sea of blue and white in the crowd as well as the desire and passion in their dressing room, the Black Bears weren’t going to go quietly into the Boston night, and so eventually found the game-tying tally from an unlikely source.

Luke Antonacci’s 2025 did not start off on the right foot. After an early January loss to Denver, Antonacci was called “unplayable” by Barr after struggling to maintain his composure and make poised plays during the game’s biggest moments.

But since being reinstated into the lineup on January 31st, the junior defenseman has had his best stretch of play as a member of the Black Bears. Especially in the past few weeks, Antonacci’s game has risen exponentially. He’s no longer playing timidly.

Instead, he has been playing with new-found fearlessness. Antonacci has been carrying the play more often out of the zone, finding the ability to deliver a physical game even at his 5’8” stature, no longer caught between two minds during his decision-making. He has even begun producing on the offensive side of the puck, registering his first two points of the year with a pair of assists on Senior Night, and then his first goal in over two years during the final regular-season game at UMass. 

But Antonacci shined the brightest on New England hockey’s biggest stage, playing his most complete game during his time at Maine Thursday night at the Garden. As motivational as the Black Bears have been this season and particularly on Thursday evening, Antonacci’s 360-degree turnaround has led the way in terms of inspiration and it is only fitting that he ended up as the goalscorer for Maine’s third-period equalizer.

His goal, with 12:44 left in the third period, came off a faceoff draw won by Harrison Scott, who swept the puck directly back to Antonacci. The Princeton, New Jersey native took control of the puck, kept his composure as a diving Husky attempted to thwart him, and threw a poised wrist shot onto net from the top of the right-wing faceoff circle. The puck ricocheted off a Husky body in front of the net, redirecting its way past Whitehead to find twine and just about blow the roof off the Garden.

Bedlam ensued as Black Bear Nation celebrated Antonacci’s biggest goal of his life in his 101 career game wearing the Maine script.

A big moment needed a big play, and Antonacci delivered decidedly.

The Black Bears mob Luke Antonacci after the junior’s second goal of the season ties the game in the third. (Photo: Matt Dewkett - College Hockey News)

With hurricane-force winds in their sails, the Black Bears never looked back as Maine dominated the rest of the game, and we all know what happened next. Rewnwick’s goal sealed the most significant victory in program history in well over a decade. The Black Bears, through pure passion, utter desire, and downright domination, booked their place in the Hockey East Championship Game Friday night with the opportunity to bring the Lamoriello Trophy back to Orono for the first time since 2004.

Rest, recoup, and recovery

The second Renwick’s winner hit the back of the net; all attention turned towards Friday night's Championship Game against their Achilles heel, another pack of Huskies, in this case Connecticut.

The UConn Huskies, having steamrolled Boston University 5-2 in Thursday’s first semifinal of the evening by way of a Joey Muldowney hat trick, got to put their feet up and enjoy the sight of Maine and Northeastern expending every ounce of energy they had in their tank for over 90 minutes of hard-fought, all-out war hockey, simply for the pleasure of playing them in the final.

Connecticut will have been fast asleep by the time Maine’s bus pulled into their Boston-area hotel well after midnight. There’s no question that these Huskies will have an innate advantage in terms of physical rest and time to prepare for the Championship Game, which will drop the puck about 20 hours after the Black Bears finally left the ice on Thursday.

For Maine, immediate hydration and sleep took precedence over any game plans or strategy sessions.

“First of all, it's hydration. I was looking at my jersey after the game, and I think it was starting to turn yellow, just sweating piles. But the first step is winding down, really slowing the mind down so we are able to sleep, then get some recovery, and then it’s just sticking to our normal process, a little bit of extra hydration,” Renwick explained.

The Black Bears may come into Friday’s Championship more banged up and fatigued than the Huskies, but adrenaline will kick in and take over. After all, while the turnaround isn’t quite as quick, Maine has spent most weekends playing back-to-back games without much dropoff in their play. Besides, Maine is one of the more physically fit teams in the conference, which has been a key area of focus ever since Barr took the job, as his team plays to a style that requires them to grind down and outlast their opponents. Huge credit should go to Maine’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Codi Fitzgerald, who will no doubt have the Black Bears in tip-top shape to compete for silverware on Friday night.

After all, if they can’t get up for Friday night, they might not have a pulse, and if there’s anything we’ve learned about Maine this season, they most definitely have a pulse.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that hard, honestly. In terms of energy-wise, we expended a lot tonight, but we're playing for a championship tomorrow, so it’s not going to be very hard to get up for that game, so I’m not too worried about it,” Renwick explained.

On top of this, the Black Bears will be playing not only for a Hockey East Championship but for redemption against the Huskies, who, besides Boston College, are the only Hockey East team Maine has not beaten this season, falling 4-2 and tying 2-2 at the Alfond in mid-January, and then losing in overtime to Connecticut 3-2 in Storrs in late February.

The Connecticut Huskies might be the hottest team in all of college hockey right now, having gone on a post-Christmas 15-3-2 tear, and will enter Friday night on a five-game winning streak while not having lost since UMass got the better of them on February 7th. Having booked their place in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, the Huskies will also be seeking their first-ever Hockey East title, having lost in the 2022 Final in overtime to the Minutemen.

“We probably don’t need the motivation, we haven’t beat UConn this year,” Barr said. “They are playing as good as anyone in the nation, I think in the second half, they are a fantastic team.”

UConn plays a similar style of game to the Black Bears: aggressive, abrasive, hard-nosed, and full of jump. The difference between UConn and Maine is that Connecticut has the elite-scoring stick of Joey Muldowney at their disposal, while the Black Bears don’t have a truly innate and natural goalscorer on which they can rely.

But Maine has the hearts of Black Bears and has been working towards this moment, this opportunity, this game for their entire lives. After all, for the team and its fans, it just means more to Maine than it does to anyone else.

“It would mean a lot to this group, to this team, and to the State to win a Hockey East Championship. That’s always been the goal since day one; that’s what we’re focused on, and that would be a dream come true for our locker room,” Renwick said.

It’s Husky hunting season, after all.

One pack of dogs down, one more to go.

The job is not done.

This is our time, our moment.

Bring it home, Black Bears.