Lowell held off a strong Maine attack and barely escaped with a win before
succumbing to a 3-3 tie with the visiting Black Bears. The Riverhawks were
backed by the strong play of junior goalie Scott Fankhouser whose solid play
constantly kept Maine's attack at bay. The tie gives Lowell their first point in
six games and moves them into a sixth place tie with Providence in HockeyEast.
Maine jumps into sole possesion of fifth place.
 
Maine s junior Bobby Stewart broke in cleanly on the first shift. Fankhouser
played it perfectly, backing back into his crease and making a right pad save on
Stewart s shot. Greg Koehler laid a huge hit on Stewart in the corner and the
resulting scramble put Lowell s Doug Nolan in the box for holding. The Maine
power-play plus some weird board action kept Lowell on their toes. After several
saves in tight, Maine finally beat Fankhouser with a tipped slapshot from the
left point. Maine forward Scott Parmentier was on the right side of the slot and
tipped it cleanly into low right corner.
 
Lowell came right back less than a minute later. Some nice point work by
defenseman Shawn Hebert eventually led to a soft backhand feed down low to Nick
Carso, who put a wrist shot between the pads of Michaud.
 
Lowell got their first power-play at 3:53 when Maine s Ben Guite was a little
too high on a check during a deep forecheck. Cappelletti had fed the puck up the
boards and Guite laid an elbow on the follow up hit. Maine would keep Lowell
from getting a solid setup going and killed the penalty without incident. Maine
went two men down about halfway through the period and Lowell wasn t able to
score. Maine got a series of powerplays from the 14:32 mark on including a two
man advantage of their own for over a minute and the Black Bears weren t able to
capitalize either. Lowell s senior defenseman Chris Libett got a shorthanded
breakaway during the 2-man penalty kill. He came out to the point and blocked a
Maine shot and broke out with the puck but Michaud made the clean save.
 
The period ended 1-1 with Lowell enjoying a 10-7 shot advantage despite being
shorthanded for 8:21, including a 2-man disadvantage for 1:09. Lowell had the
powerplay for 4:53 including a 2-man edge for 1:07. The play was pretty even
during 5x5 situations with both teams passing fairly well.
 
The second period story was simply Lowell s Fankhouser holding fort. Maine s
attack was strong and relentless and the high-flying Black Bears got many
chances to score. The period started off with Lowell killing 0:30 of a Maine
powerplay without threat. Then during transition play, Lowell s Shannon Basaraba
stole a pass and fed defenseman Anthony Cappelletti on another clean breakaway.
This time Michaud was beat just below the stickhand and Lowell had a 2-1 lead.
Their first in close to 400 minutes of play.
 
Lowell s Doug Nolan and Koehler paired up to give Maine 1:39 of another 2-man
powerplay. It was Nolan s third minor of four for the night and Koehler s third
minor of five called. During the powerplay, Maine did everything but score. They
were even helped by several Lowell miscues in their own end. Fankhouser held
strong and the defense was able to clear the rebounds at least to the corners.
 
After Maine s powerplay, Lowell got a couple of their own during which they were
able to generate some pressure but no real chances. Maine s Steve Kariya had a
shorthanded breakaway and another bid where he came out from the Lowell corner,
both times failing to get it past Fankhouser. At even strength about halfway
through the period, Maine s Wansborough hit a post to the left of Fankhouser.
Maine finally did score after a scramble in front of the Lowell net. Kariya
lifted one over the sprawled Lowell goalie for a 2-2 tie at 16:35.
 
Once again, Lowell was to come right back, scoring a go ahead goal less than two
minutes later. During a strong Lowell attack, Michaud made several saves before
the puck squeaked by him and laid just outside the red line by the right post.
Lowell freshman Kyle Kidney was tied up behind the net with a Maine defenseman
but he was able to reach around the net and put the puck home for the 3-2 lead
at 18:41.
 
The period ended with that score, Lowell outscoring Maine 2-1 in the period
despite being outshot by a walloping 17-4 margin. Lowell was shorthanded for
nearly eight minutes with 1:39 two men down. Maine had to kill 4:00 minutes of
Lowell powerplay.
 
The third period was more of the same although Lowell was also able to generate
good offensive pressure at times. Fankhouser continued to look solid, never
being far out of position and apparently anticipating Maine s shots really well.
As was the case all game, Maine was to enjoy more powerplay time including
another 0:24 of two man advantage. Once again, Lowell survived the situation and
even generated a few breakouts of their own. The play becoming increasingly
chippy and Maine was showing their frustration.
 
The Black Bears were to finally even the score on a nice play by Ben Guite. The
Maine forward came rushing down the right side and went deep before sliding a
wide cross crease pass to freshman Tuomo Jaaskelainen for the putaway by a
sliding Fankhouser. It was Jaaskelainen s fourth goal on the weekend.
 
The goal seemed to wake Lowell up a bit and Maine had all they could do to keep
the game tied. Maine s Kariya got a good chance late but the period was to end
with the game tied.
 
The overtime was a lot of neutral zone play with a few chances at both ends. At
one point, Lowell s Greg Koehler walked out from the corner and was in alone on
Michaud. The forward had plenty of time and waited until Michaud went down
before his shot appeared to bounce off the goalie s glove hand arm.
 
Lowell s Fankhouser garnered the #1 star with 36 saves on Maine s 39 shots.
Maine s Jaaskelainen got the #2 star for his game-tying goal and Lowell s
Cappelletti got the #3 honor. Maine was 1/13 on the powerplay while Lowell was
0/8.
 
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