NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — The University of Maine’s hockey team picked up a valuable road point Saturday night with a 2-2 overtime tie against the nation’s seventh-ranked team, the Merrimack College Warriors.
But the Black Bears thought they had a win only to have Spencer Abbott’s apparent game-winner with 27.8 seconds left in OT waved off because it was ruled that the whistle had blown before Abbott tucked the puck into the net.
Joey Diamond’s initial shot off a Kyle Beattie pass was saved by Merrimack goalie Joe Cannata and a wild scramble ensued during which Abbott shoveled the puck home.
The referees had waved it off initially and, after a lengthy video review, they upheld their ruling.
“I was about to shoot it when I heard the whistle,” said Abbott in validating the referee’s decision. “But they shouldn’t have blown the whistle. The puck rolled over (Cannata’s) face. He never really had control of it. The ref just missed the call. He may have been a little out of position.”
Maine coach Tim Whitehead said referee Tim Benedetto told him he lost sight of the puck.
When a referee loses sight of the puck, they are supposed to blow the whistle and stop play.
“He’s an excellent official and a great guy. He told me after watching the replay, that he probably blew the whistle too soon,” said Whitehead who added that he appreciated Benedetto’s honesty.
The Maine coach pointed out that there wasn’t audio available at Merrimack to hear if the whistle had blown even though there is a league rule that every rink must have audio.
“On the audio we had (on our videotape), it appeared the puck went in before the whistle,” said Whitehead.
Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy said, “Whether he should have blown the whistle or not (remains to be seen). But he did and it worked out in our favor. We feel a lot better about it than [Maine].”
Whitehead said, “It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the two points but at least we earned a point on the road and we’ll move forward from here.”
Maine is now 10-8-3 overall, 7-7-2 in Hockey East. Merrimack is 12-4-5 and 8-3-3, respectively.
Maine snapped Merrimack’s overall four-game winning streak against them and four-game winning skein at Lawler Arena.
After losing to the Warriors 6-2 on Friday night, the Black Bears poured 41 shots on Cannata and took a pair of one-goal leads on Brian Flynn’s first-period power-play goal and Diamond’s second-period even-strength score.
But Elliott Sheen answered Flynn’s goal at the 12:19 mark of the second period and, after Diamond re-established the lead 3:44 later, Jesse Todd tied it up with his third power-play goal of the weekend.Todd’s game-tying goal came with 11:51 left in the third period.
“It was a very good point,” said Whitehead. “Our compete level was much higher than Friday night and (goalie) Dan Sullivan bounced back with a solid game.”
Abbott added, “Everybody was competing tonight. We played real hard.”
Diamond said Maine played smart.
“The disallowed goal was a tough break for us because I thought we were definitely the better team tonight,” he said. “This was a big bounce-back game for us. We know how we have to play to win games.”
Flynn extended Maine’s streak to 13 consecutive games with a power-play goal (24-for-65, 36.9 percent) when he pounced on a Mark Anthoine rebound and fired it past Cannata.
Maine outshot Merrimack 15-9 in the first period but Cannata kept his team within a goal.
Sheen equalized when he jumped on a Will O’Neill turnover, skated into the zone and fired the puck off the far-side post and in.
O’Neill was assessed a 10-minute misconduct after the goal.
Diamond recaptured the lead when he deflected Nick Pryor’s wrist shot from the point behind Cannata.
“It was a great shot by Nick and I got a piece of it,” said Diamond.
Todd, who had scored five and six seconds after Merrimack had gone on the power play on Friday night, took just nine seconds to score after Diamond was assessed an interference penalty.
Todd’s initial shot was kicked out by Sullivan but the puck came right back to him and he snapped it home.
“I got my pad on the first shot but his second shot beat me low between the blocker and my body,” said Sullivan.
Maine carried the play in overtime, outshooting Merrimack 5-1 to finish the game with a 41-34 edge in shots.
But the Black Bears had to settle for a tie when their game-winner was disallowed.
Sullivan said he took a page out of Cannata’s book.
“He plays deeper in his crease than I do so that’s what I did tonight. You have to be ready quicker in this rink because there’s very little room in the neutral zone so you have to start getting ready (for a shot) when they carry it over the red line,” said Sullivan, noting that goalies don’t have as much time to come out to cut down the angle and then skate back into their crease.
Once again Tim Whitehead and his team were the victims of biased refs. The overtime goal was probably legal, but other considerations overrode that fact. Still, a tie vs. Merrimack and a loss by only four points constitutes a moral victory–or two. No?
no
I was there and there was no whistle blown. Benedetto is a stupid s.o.b
I listened on the radio and Dan Hannigan said it was a goal as well. If you were there please tell me that Tim was screaming at the refs!??
No he didn’t raise his voice at all on that call. He nodded his head after Benedetto explained the call.
“Benedetto is a nice guy.” For whatever reason we always get this ref…..
Benedetto is a p.o.s
It is a clear sign of a program’s decline when the primary excuse after every loss is ‘poor officiating’; every team is faced with periodic bad calls, good teams win despite the calls and surely do not use them a excuses for losses. Maine is at cross roads with the Hockey program and it could not be at a worse time. Our once overflowing and pristine rink was a recruting draw, now with nearly every HE rival housed in superior facilities we look like the poor cousin in the hinterland who cannot even fill its cute arena. Cap that with unenthusiatic crowds of adults (compare our student sections to those at UNH, BC, BU) and it is no surprise the top recruits in HE are no longer drawn to UMaine. Now we have to compete with Notre Dame for HE recruits? The future is not bright in my opinion.
Thomas: good points, for which I thank you. But I remain outraged when anyone seriously suggests that Alfond Arena in effect needs yet more improvements. So many academic bldgs. on campus are disgraceful, not least the most pictured bldg., Stevens Hall, with a cupola. Paint and plaster are falling, sometimes during classes. Former Pres. Kennedy and one-time History major Gov. Baldacci care(d) nothing about ordinary classrooms and offices and never pushed for funds to repair Stevens and other older bldgs.
Not sure the facilities are really the issue. Just last year the WSJ ranked The Alfond as the greatest home field advantage in all of college sports. Not just hockey. All sports.
Merrimack, Providence, Northeastern, Vermont all play in disgusting dumps. BC and UMass play in cookie-cutter facilities with no atmosphere or character. UNH, BU and Lowell have nicer, and newer facilities. But the fan experience is still better at The Alfond. Fact is that when it is full, the team is good, the place rocks like no other.
Issue here is simple: coaching. Change it, and they will come. They being fans and top recruits.
It was not all that long ago that I was at a game officiated by Conrad Hache. He missed 2 maine goals (there was a Kariya on the ice, so you know how long ago it must have been). Maine still kicked butt in that game. If ya take care of business, you do not miss out on a win because of a bad call in overtime.
Right, and don’t forget the 1993 NCAA semi-final vs Michigan when UMO scored a goal that was disallowed because it slid out the back of the net. Clearly a goal on replay, but no replay allowed back then. Maine won that game in OT. Thank goodness for Lee Saunders!
The Black and Blue Bears can’t catch a break….Boston area Refs!
All the referees in Hockey East are terrible.
Why didn’t this team hold off MC to prevent OT? None of this Bennedetto crap would have happened. Classic Timmy Hockey…
Maine twice had a lead in this game. Wasn’t it Merrimack that salvaged the tie?
Gotta put away good teams when you have the chance (twice) Timmay…
its a good thing diamond was praised very reently for staying out of the box! cant teach an old dog new tricks. he took 4 penalties this weekend, the last leading to the power play that tied it up for merrimack. two weeks ago, joey was 2nd in the nation in penalty minutes with 5 fewer games played than the rest of the top 10. i’ll be interested to see after this weekend where he ranks.
And what about the “too many men on the ice call?” with just a few minutes left in regulation.
AND yes too many men on the ice…but was this a punishment to #39 Diamond by putting him in the box to serve the penalty..? I mean putting a 15 goal scorer in the box when he could be out killing penaltys and MAYBE scoring a short-handed goal..? I know he took some ill advised penaltys this weekend…but does it make sense to sit him in the box…I thought they played the game for wins…not almost of’s.
how is diamond going to score a short handed goal?
he is slower than Sullivan, end to end.
Slower…what the blank are you thinking…having a player on the ice that can kill penalty’s and if the chance come’s,scores a shorthanded marker is alot better then him sitting in the box…who gives a blank about the speed factor…maybe you should be a assistant coach with TW.
typically you need speed to get behind the defense shorthanded…diamond isn’t a good penalty killer…
first time watching hockey, eh?
Once again a good team on the road and no win for the Bears. How long has it been since they beat a good team on the road, 4 years now???
who is to blame for the too many man on the ice penalty at the end, and how come McHomey doesn’t mention this in the article??????????????????????
Also the article should be “Warrior’s Salvage tie”–not Bears
McHomey didn’t write the article, he wasn’t there this weekend
Maine was fortunate just to get to OT. They had the play taken to them in the third and their second goal only happened as the result of a blatant Diamond interference right in front of the referee that wasn’t called. Let’s be honest, one point was all they deserved this weekend against a pretty good team and they were lucky to get that.
Benedetto needs to buy some glasses if he’s losing sight of the puck. According to Timmay he’s a great official though. I think he’s awful and shouldn’t be a referee. If that’s BU or BC it’s a goal and we all know it.
“O’Neill was assessed a 10-minute misconduct”
What was that about?
He shot the puck away after Merrimack scored their first goal. O’Neill thought the puck hit the post and came out. Ray Charles I mean Benedetto gave him a 10 minute penalty for it.
so sad to see a once feared program turned into: “who we playing tonight?” answer: “the Black Bears”, and the response to that: “you mean the teddy bears?, we should get at least 1 point if we just show up!”
Typical Maine fans, whine when they tie…..
typical Maine fan who cannot possibly imagine a day when Maine gets 1 point out of 6 from Merrimack in a season.
typical Maine fan who cannot ever remember the last time Maine won in North Andover…
THIS typical Maine fan remembers BEING at the Volple the VERY FIRST time Merrimack beat Maine on the ice and feeling like he had been kicked in the gut. IMPOSSIBLE to imagine that Merrimack could even beat Maine. Now Maine cannot beat Merrimack even once in a season.