Vermont men's hockey rallies past Maine in Hockey East playoff game

The University of Vermont men's hockey team prolonged it season on Wednesday night. And third-year head coach Todd Woodcroft got his first playoff win as Catamounts' bench boss.

And they did so with a thrilling rally.

Overcoming a pair of one-goal deficits, the No. 11-seeded Catamounts blitzed No. 6 Maine with a three goal third-period to capture a 4-2 victory in the in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs at Alfond Arena.

Vermont (11-19-5) will play at No. 1 Boston University in Saturday's quarterfinal at 4:30 p.m.

"Tonight's victory was a huge step for this program," Woodcroft said in a statement. "These players have no quit in them. We played sixty hard minutes and made few mistakes. We stuck to our game plan and we were good when we had to be good. This was a complete team effort. No superstars tonight — a collective victory in all manners of the word."

Lynden Breen, Maine's leading scorer, gave the hosts a 1-0 lead on the power play at 14:01 of the first period. Timofei Spitserov countered with a Vermont man-advantage tally at 6:40 of the second period.

In the first minute of the third, Breen struck again for a 2-1 Black Bears' advantage. The Catamounts then promptly ripped off three unanswered goals over the last 12:40 of regulation.

Andrew Buyalsky converted Massimo Lombardi's feed from behind the net into the tying goal, and Isak Walther followed 6:35 later with a power play goal for a 3-2 edge.

William Lemay wrapped the scoring on an empty netter with less than 40 seconds to play.

Wednesday's game marked UVM's first postseason game at Alfond Arena. The Catamounts now own the all-time series edge vs. Maine (32-31-8).

Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont men's hockey rallies past Maine in Hockey East playoffs