LEWISTON — The Maine Nordiques live for another day.
The Nordiques defeated the Maryland Black Bears 5-4 on Friday night at The Colisee in Game 3 of their best-of-five NAHL East Division Final.
“We earned the game we wanted to earn,” Maine Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “You don’t get to do anything, this game doesn’t give you anything and we took one from them.”
Maryland holds a 2-1 series lead and Game 4 is set for Saturday at The Colisee at 1:30 p.m.
The Nordiques had five goal-scorers, while David Helledy had three assists and Jonny Meiers had two of his own.
Goaltender Kael DePape made 47 saves in the win. It was his first start of the playoffs.
“It’s nice to have a game where you see a lot of quality chances,” DePape said. “It keeps you dialed throughout the game. That helped me out a lot.”
Gabriel Wrestling jammed the puck home nearly 15 minutes into the first period, giving the Black Bears a 1-0 lead. Sean Kilcullen and Branden Piku had the helpers.
“He has been good all playoffs,” Maryland coach Clint Mylymok said of Wrestling. “You are 6-foot-4 and have skill — it’s like anything, if you compete and have that element in your game, you are hard to play against.”
The Nordiques responded when Patrick Schmiedlin went to the net and fired a point-blank shot past Maryland goalie Willam Hakansson about 40 seconds after Wrestling’s tally.
Oliver Genest had the assist on Schmiedlin’s goal.
“Like I said, I really love this team,” Schmiedlin said. “Playing for each and every one of them is what drives me and what drove me tonight.”
Maine took a 2-1 lead into intermission when forward Henrik Hallberg shot beneath the right circle and found a hole past Hakansson with under two minutes remaining in the first period. Meiers and Helledy set the goal up.
“I think his goal did more than put a point on the board for us,” Pinchevsky said. “That’s what the building saw tonight.”
Midway through the second period, Brendan Gibbons gave Maine a 3-1 advantage. Aidan Coupe had an assist.
A couple of minutes after the goal, a mini line brawl broke out in front of DePape’s crease. Brendan Kimball and Filip Wiberg of the Nordiques and Brayden Stannard and Piku got five minutes for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.
Stannard also got called for roughing.
Late in the period, Tony Achille of the Nordiques and Caleb Craven for the Black Bears got five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.
“Tactics are different for every hockey team and there are certain concepts in the game that you can utilize at certain times,” Pinchevsky said. “I think they were instructed to do so. Like I said, there was a lot of action in that game.”
Defenseman Evan Orloff gave the Nordiques a 4-1 lead later in the second period, with Helledy and Meiers picking up the assists.
Maryland started a comeback attempt early in the third period when Christian Catalano cut the deficit in half 2:37 into the third period. Kaleb Tiessen tallied a goal 3:46 into the frame.
“In the third, that’s how we are supposed to play,” Mylymok said. “I think in the series, our third periods have been our best period. Maybe the only time we’ve had a good period, to be honest with you.”
Hunter Fetteroff scored the game-winning goal nearly 14 minutes into the third for a 5-3 Nordiques lead. Defenseman Nicholas Bernardo had the assist.
“Hunter has an absolute cannon and when he gets to use it, and use it on the net, that’s usually the result,” Pinchevsky said. “We are looking for him to do that more often because he has a hell of a shot.”
Hunter Ramos scored just past the 15-minute mark for Maryland to keep the Black Bears in striking distance.
Maryland crashed the net many times in the final five minutes in its bid to tie the game. They pulled Jack Wieneke, who came in at the third period, in the final two minutes.
“We put one over the crossbar and I thought that’s as good as you can do in terms of pulling your goalie and putting on that pressure without scoring,” Mylymok said.
DePape wasn’t going to let the tying goal cross the goal line.
“It’s a tight game and you are trying to make every save you can and come up with the save however you can,” DePape said.
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