ORONO, Maine - An evenly-fought contest between the Maine Black Bears and Northeastern Huskies ended in a 3-3 tie Saturday, in Maine's Skating Strides Against Breast Cancer game.
The Black Bears opened the scoring at 17:01 of the first period, as Lydia Murray stole the puck on a turnover at the blueline, bringing it over to Cailey Hutchison. Hutchison handled it along the boards and sent a pass to the open Murray in the slot, who fired it in for her fourth of the year.
Maine doubled its lead on Tereza Vanisova's ninth goal of the year. Vanisova rushed in on the far wing and spun away from the defense, hanging in behind the goal line. Celine Tedenby couldn't handle a feed from Vanisova from behind the goal line in the slot, but shoveled it out to the boards. Taylor Leech handled it, then fired a shot. Vanisova, hounding the net, stuffed in the puck.
On a 5-on-3 for Northeastern at 8:19 of the second period. Playing keep away on the outside with Brooke Hobson and Alina Mueller, Chloe Aurard finished the play on the short side of the net to get the Huskies on the board.
On the power play, Alyson Matteau rifled a shot from the point, handling a pass from Anna Zikova to extend the lead to 3-1 at 14:26 in the second.
Mia Brown scored her first collegiate goal at 16:09 in the second, scored a rebound goal deep in the crease. Aurard scored her second goal of the night at 2:23 of the third, shooting with time and space from the slot.
Maine outshot the Huskies 35 to 33 on the night, and had a strong penalty kill, stopping 5-of-6 opportunities.
This is the second time this season the Black Bears have gone to overtime. In its first game of the season, Maine defeated Quinnipiac 2-1 on Oct. 5 in extra time. This is the team's first tie this season.
The Black Bears wore commemorative pink jerseys in the game for this year's Skating Strides Against Breast Cancer game, sponsored by Consolidated Communications.
Skating Strides has been a Hockey East initiative since January 2007. These games have raised over $300,000 for breast cancer charities across New England in that time, with all funds staying in-state for each school.
Funds raised by the Black Bears goes to the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing in Lewiston. Visit the Dempsey Center's website to learn more, or click here to donate.
Maine returns home next weekend for a two game series against Dartmouth College. Puck drop for the games on Saturday, Nov. 24 and Sunday, Nov. 25 are both 2 p.m.
