The Maine Black Bears rallied from two goals down to forge a tie against St. Cloud in the consolation game of the Florida College Classic and then earned the third place spot when defenseman Josh Van Dyk scored the only goal in a five-man shootout.
The game does go down in the records as a tie for both teams.
The Huskies got the offense rolling at 3:21 of the first period with a goal by sophomore forward Aaron Marvin. They then extended the early lead to a 2-0 margin with a goal less than one minute later by freshman defender Sam Zabkowicz.
Maine got on the scoreboard at 11:39 of the first period with a goal by Matt Duffy. He was assisted on the play by Gustav Nyquist.
In the second period, St. Cloud regained the two-goal lead with a power-play goal by Lasch at 4:41. He was assisted on the play by Marvin and Raboin. This was Lasch’s 22nd career power play goal, which ranks seventh in the team records.
Maine pulled within a goal at 12:31 of the second period with a short-handed goal by Jeff Dimmen. They then evened the game 17:06 of the frame, this time on the power play when Brian Flynn buried a Lem Randall pass.
After a scoreless third period and overtime period, the game was sent into a shootout situation to determine third place for the tournament. St. Cloud saw Maine goaltender Scott Darling stop all five shooters he faced before Van Dyk scored the shootout winner on Maine’s fifth attempt against goaltender Dan Dunn.
For the game, the Black Bears out-shot the Huskies, 43-31. Both teams were 1-of-5 on the power play, as Dunn made 40 saves for SCSU and Scott Darling made 28 saves for Maine.
Maine will return to action next Friday, January 2, when they host the US Under-18 Team in an exhibition contest before hosting New Hampshire at home in league play on Sunday. St. Cloud will be idle next weekend before hosting a two-game series against Minnesota-Duluth on January 9 and 10.
