Feb. 6, 2015
ORONO, Maine – Vince Hinostroza assisted on three goals to help the Notre Dame hockey team (11-14-4, 6-5-4 Hockey East) pick up a point on the road with a 4-4 tie at Maine’s Alfond Arena on Friday night.
The Black Bears (10-16-3, 5-8-2 HE) and Irish played two back-and-forth periods before settling into a scoreless third period and overtime to split the two points in the standings. Hinostroza had multiple points for the first time in the past six games, all of which he has at least one point in. It marked his second three-assist game of the year, joining his Dec. 6 effort at Massachusetts, and matches the most by a Notre Dame skater since 2010.
“Especially over the last six weeks, he’s really started to get his game in order,” Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said of the sophomore who is among the Hockey East and national leaders with 24 assists on the year.
The game saw the highest-scoring first period of a Notre Dame contest this year with five goals scored in all, three of them coming off of Irish sticks for a 3-2 Notre Dame lead after 20 minutes of play. Maine notched the first goal 4:02 into the game when Blaine Byron snuck a wrist shot just inside the far post, but Notre Dame scored the next two goals to take a 2-1 advantage. The first Irish goal came as Hinostroza flew down the right wing, setting up a two-on-one with the equally streaky Anders Bjork. Hinostroza fed Bjork for the first Irish tally of the night at 7:13. Less than a minute later, Notre Dame took the lead with its suddenly-hot power play. Defenseman Jordan Gross pinched in and tipped Andy Ryan’s shot from the point home for the fifth goal of his freshman season.
The goal marked the eight consecutive game in which Notre Dame has scored on the power play. Nationally, only Boston University and Michigan Tech have scored more power play goals than Notre Dame since the streak began on Jan. 10.
Maine got the equalizer on a power play of its own at 10:39 when Will merchant pushed a rebound into the Notre Dame net. Peter Schneider would send the teams to the first intermission with Notre Dame leading 3-2 as he scored his fourth goal of the year at 13:17. Set up alone in the slot by Ali Thomas, Schneider adeptly got Maine netminder Sean Romeo to go down and then put a wrist shot up over his shoulder into the net.
The Black Bears again tied the score, this time at 3-3, early in the second period when Brady Campbell charged hard to the net and put his own rebound past Chad Katunar. Maine went a step further and retook at the lead at 4-3 at the 16:06 mark. Shortly after a Notre Dame power play ended, a puck was bouncing wildly in the Irish defensive zone and Devin Shore knocked it into the Irish net.
The Irish tied the score for the fourth time between the teams at 19:01 of the second. Hinostroza fired a shot on Maine goaltender Matt Morris, which was saved but not controlled. Mario Lucia swooped in to put the rebound into an open net for his 18th goal of the year and a 4-4 score heading to the third period.
The first two periods saw four ties and two lead changes. The third period and overtime were equally frantic, but score-free. Shots were even at 10-10 over the final 25 minutes where relief netminders Cal Petersen for Notre Dame and Morris for Maine stopped everything thrown at them. Maine would hold a 39-24 advantage in shots on goal on the night but the goal tally was identical at four apiece.
“Considering how the game went, it was good to get a point,” Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said. “It was chaotic at times – I’m sure for both teams. There were adventures in goaltending for a while. Both came in and settled things down.”
The two teams will be back in action Saturday night at Alfond Arena. Puck drops at 7 p.m. ET with FOX College Sports Atlantic airing the game nationally.