Men’s Hockey: Vermont Rallies For 3-3 Tie With Maine

Courtesy Vermont Sports Information

BURLINGTON – Max Kaufman capped a three-point night with the game-tying goal at 16:17 of the final period as the Vermont Catamounts (4-7-1, 1-6-1 HEA) and Maine Black Bears (5-7-2, 3-3-2 HEA) skated to a 3-3 tie Saturday evening at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

COACH’S QUOTE
“I like the mentality on our team on the bench. They did a great job of sticking with it and obviously a nice faceoff win with a good shot with traffic going to the net to tie it up,” head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “”I loved our resilience; I loved our work ethic all weekend, but we have to continue to get better.”

HOW IT HAPPENED
Neither team scored in the opening 20 minutes despite a power play chance for each side. Stefanos Lekkas made 10 of his 30 saves and Jeremy Swayman made 13 of his 40 saves in the first.
Liam Coughlin buried a feed from Alex Esposito on a Catamount 2-on-1 to take a 1-0 just 1:17 into the second period. Kaufman kick-started the odd-man rush and picked up the secondary assist.
The Black Bears responded with a goal of their own 7:23 into the middle period. Patrick Shea found Brady Keeper in the slot from below the goal line for the one-time goal from the low slot.
Maine’s Eduards Tralmaks began a frenetic last 10 minutes of regulation with a goal at 9:52 of the period from the Catamount slot following a defensive zone turnover.
The Cats responded just 30 seconds later as Kaufman found Joey Cipollone in the slot from behind the net for a goal. Matt O’Donnell picked up the secondary assist.
Tralmaks scored again from the Catamount slot at 11:42 of the third for the game’s third goal in less than two minutes to give the Black Bears a 3-2 lead.
Vermont tied the game as Derek Lodermeier won an offensive zone face-off to defenseman Owen Grant. The sophomore fired a shot into traffic in front of Swayman, and Kaufman deflected the shot into the net for his third point of the night.
Lekkas stopped all four Maine shots faced in the extra period to preserve the tie and Hockey East point.
NOTES
Kaufman matched a career-high in assists with two and points with three. It was the second three-point game of his career, with his last coming last November against Boston College.
Lekkas finished with 30 saves, marking the sixth time this season with 30 or more stops in a game.
UP NEXT
Vermont treks west for a series at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Catamounts and Tigers will meet on Friday (Dec. 7) at 9:30 p.m. before an 8:00 p.m. start on Saturday (Dec. 8). Both game times are Eastern.