Doherty, Maine stun BC in OT
Tim Doherty — the cousin of a former Boston College captain — helped Maine engineer an upset victory over the Eagles Friday night, a 4-3 win in overtime before a subdued Kelley Rink crowd of 5,191.
MAINE 4 BOSTON COLLEGE 3
There was a plethora of architects behind the welldeserved Maine (11-9-4, 5-7-2 HE) win, none more so than Tim Doherty, a senior center from Portsmouth, R.I. Doherty, the cousin of former BC captain Teddy Doherty, scored two goals and added an assist, including the gamewinner at 2:26 of suddendeath, a play that was the beneficiary of solid work to retrieve the puck along the boards by Latvian right wing Eduards Tralmaks. Doherty finished with a team-high seven shots and won 16-of-22 faceoffs.
“It was a nice road win. We battled back in the second period and Boston College threw everything they had at us,” said Maine coach Red Gendron. “That was a great play by Ed Tralmaks to get the puck at the end from along the boards and get it over to Doherty. He likes to play here. His cousin captained BC.”
Bruins fourth-round draft choice junior Jeremy Swayman was another key, making 37 saves for the Black Bears.
“Swayman was very good all night long. Jeremy did a good job of keeping it at 2-0 and gave us an opportunity when the hole wasn’t as deep,” said Gendron.
No. 4 BC (15-6-0, 10-3-0 HE), with 12 NHL draft choices in the lineup, entered the contest having won 13 of 14. Maine, with just four NHL selections, proved a dangerous Black Bear to cage, featuring eight one-goal outcomes and four ties on its ledger.
“From my perspective, we didn’t play 60 minutes of hockey…The second period was really out of whack. All over the ice, all three zones,” said BC coach Jerry York. “Just kind of sloppy defensive coverage for the winning goal. Swayman played well for them, but we gave up three straight goals in the second. You play with fire if you don’t play 60 minutes.”
BC grabbed the first lead at 14:22 of the first period when Swayman left a rebound off the right pad with no teammate around to help. That was all BC freshman left wing Mike Hardman needed to send the juicy left-over into the back of the net for his seventh goal. Senior Ben Finkelstein, playing in his 100th career game, picked up the primary assist.
BC cracked the Maine shorthanded quartet at 16:55 when freshman Matt Boldy and Alex Newhook combined for some clever passing in tight confines around the crease. It resulted in Newhook depositing a shot from the doorstep for his ninth goal.
It could have been more as speedster Logan Hutsko was denied on a breakaway by Swayman late in the period.
One area where Maine excelled was on draws with Doherty capturing all nine of his faceoffs en route to a 19-7 team advantage.
That proved crucial to begin the second as a faceoff win (by Doherty) led to an odd-man rush with Maine’s Doherty snapping home a give-and-go feed from Mitch Fossier (goal, 2 assists) just 27 seconds in to cut the deficit in half.
The Black Bears were displaying a purpose in mind and pulled even at the 4:45 mark when center AJ Drobot connected off an assist from Fossier.
Fossier converted a goal from the blue paint at 16:40 of the second to give Maine a 3-2 edge. The play was reviewed but ultimately stood.
BC freshman Matt Boldy raced in alone at 7:15 in the third but Swayman deflected the attempt with the blocker.
Swayman came up with a clutch goal line stop on a stuff try by Marc Mclaughlin at 18:12, but the Eagles forced overtime with a power-play goal from Hutsko with 1:43 left.