It took a shootout to resolve today’s up-and-down battle between the Univ. of Southern Maine men’s ice hockey team and Elmira College in the opening round of the Skidmore College Invitational Tournament, skating to a 3-3 tie before Paul Conter scored in the shootout for the win.

Southern Maine took the lead early with co-captain Zach Joy netting the first goal of the game five and a half minutes in, assisted by Tom Gosselin. The Huskies added another with just a minute to play in the first, this time co-captain Jon Rutt finding the back of the net with assists from Dan Rautenberg and Matt MacDonald.

The momentum shifted in the second as Elmira capitalized on USM penalties. Just under a minute into the second, Darcy Vaillancourt put the Soaring Eagles on the scoreboard with a power play goal at 0:58. Another power play goal came four minutes later from Elmira’s Brendan Sanders and the game was tied at 2-2.

The Soaring Eagles scored a third unanswered goal early in the third period for a 3-2 lead.

Kevin Willer, who had assisted on both of Elmira’s second period goals, got one of his own just over a minute into the third to put his team in the lead for the first time in the game. The Huskies answered back with a power play goal of their own (Jon Rutt’s second of the game, assists by Paul Conter and Dustin Rider) to tie the game at 3-3 with 6:18 to play, sending the game into overtime.

The two teams skated scoreless for a five minute overtime period, sending the game to a shootout.

Elmira was unable to get the puck past Huskies goaltender Braely Torris, who posted an impressive 44 saves in the game. The Huskies scored twice, with Conter, getting the game-winner, and Craig Perham beating Soaring Eagles netminder Darren McDonald (28 saves) to advance USM to the Championship game of the Skidmore Invitational.

The Huskies face Buffalo State on Sunday at 4pm; the consolation game will be played at 1pm between Elmira and the tournament host Skidmore Thoroughbreds.

UNE – 4; SNHU – 5
South Portland native Troy Maybury scored two goals including the game-winning goal in the third period as Southern New Hampshire University defeated the University of New England, 5-4, in the opening game of PAL Stovepipe Tournament in Hooksett, NH.

UNE would get goals from Tyler Fleurent, scored twice on the day, along with Scott McManaman and Matt Del Guidice.

Maybury opened the scoring in the first period just 3:57 into the game, and followed that up with the game-winning goal with 4:50 left in the game, giving SNHU the victory.

Mike Roper made 23 saves in the loss, while Tyler Holske improved to 2-1-0 on the season with a 35 save effort.