ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men’s hockey team’s 10-game home unbeaten streak came to an end on Saturday night.
Junior defenseman Guillaume Richard, who had originally committed to attend the University of Maine, celebrated his 21st birthday by scoring a power play goal 23 seconds into overtime to give Providence College a 4-3 win over the Black Bears.
UMaine had been 8-0-2 at Alfond Arena.
The Friars erased three one-goal deficits to earn the win. The Friars are now 16-9-2 overall ad 9-6-2 in Hockey East, while the Black Bears fell to 18-6-2 and 10-5-1.
The Black Bears had a golden opportunity to break a 3-3 tie with two minutes left in the game but failed to convert on a break involving Donavan Houle and Ben Poisson.
Moments later, freshman defenseman Liam Lesakowski picked up a minor penalty for holding with 1:09 remaining in regulation.
The Black Bears killed off the regulation segment of the penalty, but it carried over into the three-on-three overtime.
It went to a four-on-three power play in OT and Richard capitalized with a one-timer into the short side corner past UMaine freshman goalie Albin Boija from the right faceoff circle off a pass from Nick Poisson. It was his third goal of the season.
The power play opportunity was the eighth of the game for Providence, which is the most surrendered by the Black Bears in a game this season.
All three UMaine goals came on the power play with freshman right wing Josh Nadeau scoring his 15th goal of the season and eighth on the power play with 12 seconds left in the first period. He one-timed a diagonal pass from his brother Bradly seconds after Bradly dove to stop a potential Friar breakaway.
Graduate student left wing Jamie Engelbert tied it with an even-strength goal 5:18 into the second period as he deflected a Cam McDonald shot past Boija.
Graduate student left wing Poisson restored the one-goal lead for UMaine with 25 seconds left in the middle period when he swatted a Josh Nadeau past sophomore goalie Philip Svedeback for his fourth of the season.
Freshman right wing Graham Gamache tied it early in the third period with his fourth of the year on the power play. He beat Boija from the middle of the slot off a rebound.
Sophomore defenseman Brandon Chabrier’s sixth goal supplied UMaine with its third one-goal lead with 8:59 left.
But freshman center Hudson Malinoski tied it with 4:33 left when he flipped the puck past Boija during a flurry in front. It was his seventh goal.
Svedeback finished with 22 saves while Boija made 28 stops and allowed more than two goals in a game for the first time in his career.
