PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Tanner House saw the puck sail across the goal line, then heard the final horn sound to signal the end of overtime Friday night.

House thought he had scored a goal against Providence. So did the rest of the University of Maine men’s hockey team.

But while House and his teammates celebrated what appeared to be the winning goal, officials reviewed the play and determined that time had expired before the puck crossed the goal line behind Providence netminder Alex Beaudry. The goal didn’t count, and the game ended in a 3-3 tie.

“I thought it might have been before (the buzzer),” said House, who took a pass from Gustav Nyquist on the left side of the goal and shot into an open net.

“I couldn’t see the puck and I know that the buzzer was going pretty much the same time as it was going into the net. So I don’t know if the buzzer was delayed or whatever, but obviously they looked at it and the ref made the call. You move on.”

Providence left wing Chris Rooney, whose goal with less than five minutes left in regulation sent the game to overtime, said that Schneider Arena has certain nuances.

“I think the buzzer goes off a little bit later than the clock actually hits zero,” Rooney said. “I wasn’t sure. It was a little nerve-wracking.

“I knew it was going to be tight and luckily, it was point-one off.”

After his team celebrated what it thought was a win, settling for a tie was disappointing to Maine Coach Tim Whitehead.

“It does feel like a loss,” said Whitehead, whose team is winless in its last three games. “We had plenty of chances to make it 4-2 and make it 4-3. We got stronger as the game went on, and a couple penalties cost us.”

Rooney’s goal wasn’t the only factor as Providence erased three one-goal deficits.

Providence outshot Maine 13 -9 in the third, and the Black Bears struggled on special teams. Maine (6-3-4, 4-2-2 Hockey East), finished 0 for 7 on the power play. House’s disallowed goal came during Maine’s final power play. The Black Bears also surrendered Rooney’s goal while on a power play, as the right wing intercepted a pass between Spencer Abbott and Nick Pryor inside the blue line.

“I think (the power play) has looked better than it has in the last few weekends,” House said. “But again, we’re not getting the job done. We’re not getting those goals underneath, and then we gave up one short-handed.”

In the first two minutes, Maine and Providence (6-5-4, 3-3-4) scored goals 18 seconds apart — Abbott’s goal 45 seconds into the game and Kyle MacKinnon’s goal at 1:03. Abbott added his second goal with 7:32 left in the first.

Providence defenseman Alex Velischek tied the game at 2 with 4:11 left in the first on a one-timer from the top of the left circle before Joey Diamond’s goal at 1:13 of the second broke the tie.

Maine held Providence to six shots on goalie Shawn Sirman (35 saves) in the second period. Sirman made a key play with 6:21 left in the period when he stopped Providence’s Tim Schaller on a one-on-one scoring chance.

“We were right there,” Abbott said. “We were close to making things happen. We’re still just making some errors that we can’t afford to make, and if we cut down on those, we can be successful.”

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:

rlenzi@pressherald.com