USM put home a pair of third-period goals to overcome the Nor'easters, 2-1, Tuesday night
Box Score
BIDDEFORD, Maine – First-year defenseman Ryan Boucher (Lewiston, Maine) scored with 8:17 gone in the third period as the University of Southern Maine rallied for a 2-1 victory over the University of New England in an ECAC Men's East ice hockey game Tuesday evening at the Biddeford Arena.
The win was the first in the last six starts for Southern Maine (2-4-1, 2-2-1 ECAC), which had gone 0-4-1 since its season-opening triumph over Saint Michael's College. The Nor'easters dropped to 0-8-0 overall, 0-5-0 in league play.
With the score tied at one and the Huskies on the power play, Boucher deposited a wrist shot from the right slot into the back of the cage for his first collegiate goal. First-year forward Ryan Nies (Windham, N.H.) and classmate Dustin Rider (Farmington, Conn.) were credited with assists on the play.
The visiting Huskies had tied the game just over three minutes earlier when junior defenseman Paul Conter (Woodbridge, Ontario) took advantage of another USM man-up situation, converting from straight-away just inside the blue line. Passes by sophomore Dan Rautenberg (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) and junior Jon Rut (Scarborough, Maine) set-up the tally.
After the teams played scoreless hockey over the first two periods, first-year forward Brendan Brickley (Everett, Mass.) notched a power-play goal at 2:19 of the third to give the Nor'easters a 1-0 advantage. First-year defenseman Russ Franey (York, Maine) and sophomore defenseman Tim Margiotta (Randolph, N.J.) earned assists on what was Brickley's first collegiate goal.
Southern Maine sophomore goaltender Koray Celik (Ile-bizard, Quebec) came up with a huge stop on a point-blank game-tying bid by the Nor'easters with 14 seconds to play to preserve win for the Huskies. Celik finished with 36 stops, including 19 in the first period.
First-year netminder Dallas Ungurian (Edmonton, Alberta) was spectacular between the pipes for the Nor'easters, turning away 44 of the 46 shots he faced.
USM skates one more time before the holidays, hosting nationally-ranked Salem State College this Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Nor'easters are off until Jan. 2 when they head to Plymouth State University.
