ORONO — Resilience became a necessity for the University of Maine men’s hockey team.

In a 4-3 overtime win over Providence in a Hockey East game Friday night at Alfond Arena, a solid lead was no sure thing for the Black Bears.

Each time Maine created some sort of offensive buffer, the Friars found a way to close the gap.

The Black Bears squandered a two-goal lead in the third period, as Tim Schaller tied the game at 3 with 3:44 left in regulation, capitalizing on a turnover behind Maine’s goal.

But 42 seconds into overtime, Maine left wing Brian Flynn settled a rebound at his feet and backhanded a shot past Providence goalie Justin Gates for the winning goal.

Score one for resilience, on both sides of the ice.

“Their determination — Providence’s — was really impressive,” Maine Coach Tim Whitehead said. “It appeared like they were down and out, but they just kept fighting back.”

Ultimately, Maine found a way to earn two points and move into fourth place in the conference standings with 16 points, one ahead of Merrimack.

“We got back with good momentum and we didn’t let them take over the game,” said Maine goalie Martin Ouellette, who made 14 saves. “The guys just kept playing hard.”

Jon Swavely, who scored his first career goal to give Maine a 1-0 lead at 13:18 of the first period, agreed.

“That’s what I think our team does best,” the freshman center said. “We stay resilient. We want to stay on them the whole game and not give up, and that’s our motive: to not give up and keep working hard.”

Maine killed off a seven-minute stretch of penalties called on right wing Joey Diamond — two minutes for boarding and a 5-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head/elbowing after a hit on Providence defenseman Mark Adams. The teams played four on four for two of those minutes when Providence defenseman Steven Shamanski was called for tripping.

After the penalty to Shamanski expired, the Black Bears killed off the remaining 2:44 in the penalties to Diamond.

“We responded very well,” Flynn said. “Getting out of the gate like that, it’s kind of a tough thing to take seven minutes off like that but we were able to use our feet and draw a penalty, which kind of killed two minutes for us. That, and I think we just used our full bench there. Guys stepped up.”

Flynn gave Maine a 2-0 lead at 10:46 of the second, picking up a rebound and shooting through traffic at close range, but Kyle MacKinnon cut Maine’s lead to 2-1 with 4:08 left.

With 10 seconds left in the period and Myles Harvey off for holding, Spencer Abbott’s shot from the point gave Maine a 3-1 lead. But Jordan Kremyr and Schaller scored third-period goals for Providence.

“We talked about it before the game, not laying back when we get a really good start,” Flynn said. “Try to sustain it.

“Even though they scored those two goals, I think we were playing well and working hard and we were just resilient, and being able to put that one away at the end was a big one.” 

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:

rlenzi@pressherald.com