BRUNSWICK — Austin Ricci scored 1:04 into overtime to lift Bowdoin College to a 4-3 victory against the University of New England in a nonconference Division III men’s hockey game Tuesday night at Watson Arena.

Ricci finished a rush down the left side with a shot from the circle that went in off the near post. It came about 30 seconds after Trevor Fleurent of UNE rang a shot off the right post at the other end of the ice.

“Ours went post and out, and theirs went post and in,” said UNE Coach Kevin Swallow.

It was the Nor’easters’ first loss in nearly two months. Dating to an 8-3 win against Bowdoin on Nov. 24 in Biddeford, UNE had gone 10 games without a loss.

“We knew (a loss) would eventually come and it kind of stinks losing like that in a heartbreaker,” Swallow said. “It was a well-deserved victory for Bowdoin.”

The Polar Bears snapped a four-game losing streak.

“We’ve put in some good games where we haven’t gotten the result we wanted,” said Matt Rubinoff, a Bowdoin senior forward from Oakville, Ontario. “It’s taken us awhile to get going but this (game) is a step in the right direction.

The score was 2-2 after the first period.

UNE took a 2-0 lead less than 13 minutes into the game after Danny Antonoff tipped in defenseman Tucker Ross’ shot from the right point and Blais Healy scored on a breakaway after stealing the puck at his own blue line.

Rubinoff and Jay Kourkoulis scored less than two minutes apart to make it 2-2 with less than four minutes left in the period. Rubinoff jammed in a rebound for a power-play goal and Kourkoulis poked a rebound into an open net while the teams skated at even strength.

“We didn’t take a step back after we fell down by two goals,” Rubinoff said. “We got right back up and got a couple of quick goals.”

The score was 3-3 after the second period.

With less than three minutes left in the period, Chris Wallace put in a shot from the right circle during a quick counterattack to put Bowdoin in the lead.

With less than a minute left, Tucker Ross rifled a shot in from the bottom of the right circle to tie it.

In November, Coach Terry Meagher announced his retirement at the end of this season, his 33rd with the Polar Bears.

“When we found out (he was retiring) before the season started, we wanted to make it important for him,” said Rubinoff. “Obviously he’s had such a successful time here and we wanted to keep that going.”

Under Meagher, the Polar Bears have won five conference championships.

This is Swallow’s first season as the UNE coach.

“I think (UNE) is as good as anybody in our league,” Meagher said.

“I think they’re going to take a good run in their league.”

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