ST. PAUL, Minn. The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team was 52.4 seconds and a questionable overtime penalty call away from its third national championship. Instead, the Black Bears will come home to Orono as runners-up after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in front of a crowd of 19,324, most of them partisan Gopher supporters, at the Xcel Energy Center.
“It was a very good game, but this is obviously very disappointing for us,” UMaine interim head coach Tim Whitehead said following the game. “We were 55 seconds away from winning it, but as we’ve learned very well this year, life doesn’t end up with the storybook ending all the time.”
UMaine started the third period trailing 2-1 but defenseman Michael Schutte scored his second goal of the game just 1:17 into the third period tie the score. His weak shot along the ice from the center of the blue line caught Minnesota goaltender Adam Hauser off guard. Prestin Ryan and Todd Jackson assisted on the goal.
The game remained tied and went back and forth for the next fifteen minutes until the Black Bears caught a break and took advantage.
Niko Dimitrakos brought the puck into the Minnesota zone up the middle. He took a shot from the middle of the ice that went wide to the left of the net. Robert Liscak snuck in behind the play and was able to bury the lively hop off of the backboards, beating Hauser between the legs to give UMaine its first lead of the game with 4:33 remaining.
It looked like the Black Bears were ready to cruise to the title.
Then, with an offensive zone face-off coming with just 58 seconds left, Minnesota,s third year coach Don Lucia called a timeout to set up a play and pull Hauser for the extra attacker. Just six seconds later after a mad scramble in front, Matt Koalska was able to tie the score from the doorstep.
“We had them on the ropes,” captain Peter Metcalf said. “Mike [Schutte] did a good job of tying his guy up. He did his job. It just kind of squirted out loose. It was a funny play. Any other time, we,d have kicked it to the corner or chipped it out.”
In the overtime, both goaltenders, Hauser and Umaine’s Matt Yeats, made five and six saves respectively to keep the game tied.
At the 15:58 mark of the overtime, referee Scott Piotrowski made the call that changed the game.
As Koalska streaked up the ice through the neutral zone with the puck, Schutte stuck his skate out to keep him from making a move around him. The resulting skate to skate collision sent both players flying to the ice and Piotrowski whistled Schutte for tripping.
A rare power play in a sudden death overtime resulted, and after a minute, Minnesota was able to end the game.
Minnesota sophomore Grant Potulny, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament, was able to collect the rebound in front on a Jordan Leopold shot from the right point and put the puck under a sprawling Yeats to end Minnesota’s 23 year draught between national titles.
“The puck went back to the point. The defenseman wristed it diagonally across the goal,” Yeats said of the overtime winner. “It got our defenseman in the stomach and sort of fell down. I was coming across and I fell on my butt. They whacked at it and hit my leg and went under me.”
“I tried to step up and take the body,” said Schutte of the overtime penalty. “I saw him coming up the ice with the puck and I knew he would try to pass. I felt that he kind of jumped and fell down. I don’t know if it was a trip, I’d have to watch it on video.”
“I know why he did it,” said Leopold, Minnesota’s Hobey Baker winning defenseman. “Honestly, if I were in that position, I probably would have done the same thing.”
Metcalf was much more critical of the call, and the referee.
“The guy has it out for us,” he said. “That’s the guy who threw coach Walsh out last year, and somebody should have taken note of that, and not thrown him in the game. That was a bad play by the NCAA.
“Obviously, it was a borderline call and you can’t blame the game on the refs. You’re supposed to score on the power play in overtime, and they did, so hats off to them.”
Whitehead was not as fired up at the call, but still taken aback.
“I was surprised,” he said. “There had been no other calls in the overtime. It’s unfortunate that the game-winning goal was in overtime on the power play.
“Had it been on a two-on-one, or on a scoring chance, then I would have said it was a good call. It was right in the neutral zone. But that,s not the reason we lost the game.”
Whitehead went on to say that his team had a great year.
“I’m very proud of our players and certainly proud of our fellow coaches and everyone associated with our program,” he said. “The support we’ve received, from everybody connected to it, all the people in the state of Maine was just unbelievable.”
Metcalf and Schutte were named to the NCAA All-Tournament team for defense, while Liscak was tabbed as UMaine,s lone forward on the team. The other three spots were taken Minnesota forwards Potulny and Johnny Pohl. Goalie Adam Hauser rounded out the All-Tourney Squad.
UMaine ends its season as NCAA runners-up with a record of 26-11-7. The national champion Minnesota Golden Gophers end the year at 32-8-4.