MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—The SUNY Potsdam men’s hockey team (5-5-1) rallied from a two-goal third period deficit to tie Southern Maine 4-4, in the first game of the Middlebury Holiday Classic. Sophomore forward Adam Place scored twice for the Bears.

The Huskies (4-4-1) opened the scoring just 3:16 into the first period as Tom Gosselin avoided the glove of Potsdam senior goaltender Kevin McFarland with a high wrist shot. A minute and a half later, freshman forward Paul Manderfield set up sophomore forward Mike Arnold for the equalizer. At the 7:52 mark, senior captain Sy Nutkevitch and freshman forward Trevor Cope assisted on Place’s first goal of the game to give the Bears a 2-1 advantage. Both teams traded penalties and misconducts for the rest of period, a trend that continued through the entire game, and Potsdam held the one-goal lead into the intermission.

Just under six minutes into the second stanza, junior assistant captain Matt Viola was given a game misconduct and a major penalty for hitting from behind. Southern Maine made the most of the five-minute power play and Matt Tucceri evened the score at 8:31. Again the remainder of the period played out with multiple penalties and no scoring.

Dan Rautenberg put the Huskies back out in front at the 2:34 mark of the third period with a four-on-three power-play goal. After Arnold and Southern Maine’s Angelo Vrachnas traded major penalties and game misconducts, the Huskies struck again. At 13:23, Matt McDonald extended the Southern Maine advantage to 4-2. Three minutes later, Husky Mike Greene was whistled for a five-minute major and a game misconduct and the Bears’ power play unit got to work. Freshman defenseman Erick Ware assisted on Place’s second goal at 17:15 to cut the gap to one. Just 57 seconds later, junior forward Bill Tsekos buried the game tying goal on the power play with helpers from sophomore defenseman Nick Avgerinos (Bolton, Ontario/Georgetown Raiders) and senior forward Mike Foy (Markham, Ontario/Welland Canadians).

Potsdam outshot Southern Maine 4-3 in overtime, but couldn’t net the game-winner.

McFarland finished with 37 saves to halt the Bears two-game skid. Husky goalie Braely Torris stopped 27 shots. Potsdam was 2-7 on the power play and Southern Maine finished 2-6.

The Bears are back in action tomorrow, when they take on Skidmore College at 1 p.m. to close out the Middlebury Holiday Classic.