Maine at Northeastern: Hockey East Opening Round Game 2 Notes and Line Combinations

BOSTON -- Good evening and welcome inside historic Matthews Arena on the campus of Northeastern University where the sixth-seeded host Huskies aim for a weekend sweep against No. 11 Maine in the opening round of the 2016 Hockey East Tournament. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m.

NU completed a comeback victory last night to open its first head-to-head playoff series with Maine since the 2001 quarterfinal round as junior defenseman Matt Benning scored 4:41 into overtime for a 3-2 decision.

The game marked NU's third in as many postseason outings to go into extra time as each of last year's games with Merrimack could not be decided in 60 minutes. The Huskies had not won an overtime game in postseason play since they extended a quarterfinal round series at UNH to three games two seasons ago.

The Black Bears took a 2-0 lead in last night's first period, but the hosts scored once in the second period and once in the third to force overtime. Still, NU freshman Ryan Ruck has allowed two goals or fewer in all but one of his last 16 starts.

Maine's goals came off the sticks of juniors Cam Brown and Andrew Tegeler, while Rob McGovern made 29 saves in the first playoff appearance of his career.

Here are tonight's lines:

BLACK BEARS (8-23-6)

Daniel Perez - Steven Swavely - Brendan Robbins
Will Merchant - Cam Brown - Blaine Byron
Nolan Vesey - Cedric Lacroix - Andrew Tegeler
Conor Riley - Brian Morgan - Bill Norman

Dan Renouf - Sam Becker
Mark Hamilton - Rob Michel
Eric Schurhamer - Keith Muehlbauer

Rob McGovern
Sean Romeo

HUSKIES (17-13-5)

Nolan Stevens - John Stevens - Zach Aston-Reese
Dylan Sikura - Adam Gaudette - Mike McMurtry
Kevin Roy - Brendan Collier - Sam Kurker
Lincoln Griffin - Tanner Pond - Patrick Schule

Dustin Darou - Matt Benning
Colton Saucerman - Eric Williams
Jarrett Fennell - Garret Cockerill

Ryan Ruck
Derick Roy
Jake Theut