ESTERO, Fla. - The University of Maine men’s ice hockey team skated to a 3-3 tie with St. Cloud State University on Sunday night in the consolation game of the Florida College Classic in Estero, Fla. Maine moves to 10-6-2 on the season with the tie, while St. Cloud is 10-9-1.
St. Cloud State University opened the scoring just 3:21 into the game when Aaron Marvin scored his sixth goal of the season from Garrett Roboin and Ryan Lasch. The Huskies took a 2-0 lead when Sam Zabkowicz beat Maine goalie Scott Darling (Lemont, Ill.) for his second goal of the season less than a minute later. Michael Olson and Brent Borgen assisted on the goal.
Maine cut into the lead at 11:39 of the first period. Matt Duffy (Windham, Maine) had the puck in the defensive zone and passed it up to Gustav Nyquist (Malmo, Sweden). Once over the blueline, Nyquist dropped the puck back to Duffy on the blueline and his shot found the back of net. For Duffy, it was his third goal of the season.
St. Cloud regained the two goal lead at 4:41 of the second period when Ryan Lasch scored his fifth goal of the season on the power play.
Maine cut the lead to one goal when Jeff Dimmen (Colorado Springs, Colo.) scored a short handed goal from just in front of St. Cloud goalie Dan Dunn. For Dimmen, it was his third goal of the season and first career short handed tally. Will O’Neill (Salem, Mass.) assisted on the goal for the Black Bears.
Brian Flynn (Lynnfield, Mass.) tied the game for the Black Bears at 17:06 of the third period. Lem Randall (Snow Lake, Manitoba) had a shot that Dunn stopped, but the rebound went right to Flynn who knocked it home for his sixth goal of the season. O’Neill also assisted on the game-tying goal for the Black Bears.
The two teams played through a scoreless third period and five minute overtime frame. The game went to a shootout to decide third place in the tournament and the Black Bears were victorious in that. Darling stopped all five St. Cloud skaters and St. Cloud goalie Dan Dunn stopped the first four Black Bears. Josh Van Dyk (Woodstock, Ontario) was the final skater for Maine and his shot found the back of the net, giving Maine third place in the tournament.
Maine goalie Darling made 28 saves. He moves to 8-4-2 on the season. Dunn made 40 saves for St. Cloud and moves to 2-3-1.
The Black Bears return to action on Friday, January 2 when they host the US Under -18 Team for an exhibition game at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm. Maine returns to Alfond Arena on Sunday, January 4 when they host New Hampshire at 4 p.m.