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. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.