Late goals earn UMaine hockey come-from-behind tie at UMass

The University of Maine’s hockey team received third-period goals from junior defenseman Luke Antonacci and junior left wing Nicholas Niemo and 40 saves from sophomore goalie Albin Boija to earn a come-from-behind 2-2 tie with the University of Massachusetts at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass. Saturday night.

After a scoreless, three-on-three five-minute overtime, UMaine won the shootout 2-0 to earn the extra Hockey East point.

UMaine, ranked fifth in one national poll and fourth in the other, finished up the regular season at 21-7-6 overall and 13-5-6 in Hockey East. UMaine wound up second in Hockey East and will host the second-lowest seeded survivor from Wednesday’s first round games on Saturday.

UMass ended at 19-12-5 and 10-9-5 and will be the sixth seed and will host last place Vermont on Wednesday.

UMass, ranked 14th in one poll and 16th in the other, had thumped UMaine 5-1 on Friday night.  

Sophomore center Dans Locmelis’ first-period goal off a point-blank backhander and freshman defenseman Larry Keenan’s second-period goal from the low slot staked the Minutemen to a 2-0 lead entering the third period.

Locmelis’ goal was his seventh of the season and Keenan’s was his third.

Cam O’Neill assisted on the Locmelis goal and Locmelis and Aydar Suniev had assists on the Keenan goal.

The Minutemen got a golden opportunity to break the game open late in the second period when Taylor Makar was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for crosschecking.

But the Black Bears killed it off to remain within two.

Antonacci cut the lead in half with his first goal of the season at the 5:26 mark of the third period and Niemo scored the equalizer 4:21 later. It was his third of the campaign.

Niemo and sophomore right wing Sully Scholle scored in the shootout.

UMaine wound up 5-1 in shootouts.

Antonacci notched his first goal since he scored against Boston College on Feb. 24, 2023.

He was set up nicely in the middle of the slot by Josh Nadeau and beat UMass goalie Michael Hrabal with a well-placed shot. Frank Djurasevic also assisted on it.

Niemo’s goal was unassisted as he intercepted a UMass pass in the neutral zone, broke in along on Hrabal and fired the puck past him.

UMass outshot UMaine 42-23 including a 16-4 margin in the third period.

Hrabal finished with 21 stops.

UMass went 0-for-5 on the power play while UMaine had just one power play and failed to convert.

UMaine head coach Ben Barr said his team underperformed on Saturday as it did on Friday.

“We’ve got guys who are going backwards and it’s a little alarming. We aren’t playing a great brand of hockey right now,” said Barr. “But we have a resilient group and they found a way to grind it out. Albin played very well, especially in the third period.

“We have to be better,” he added.