DURHAM, N.H. – The student section at the Whittemore Center lay dormant on Sunday afternoon, its seats nearly empty save for a small portion of the Wildcat faithful that returned to school early from Thanksgiving break.

The fans seemed muted as well, as the non-capacity crowd of 5,181 seemed tired and incensed due to a bit of lackluster play from its New Hampshire men’s hockey team.

“The crowd seemed real quiet,” Northesatern men’s hockey coach Greg Cronin said. “There wasn’t a lot of energy in the building; it was a perfect road game.”

Unfortunately for the visiting Huskies, the set of circumstances – a quiet crowd and a perfect chance to record just its second win in the 10-year history of the Whittemore Center – lasted for all of 50 minutes.

NU (1-8-2, 1-5-2 Hockey East), clinging to a 3-1 lead deep in the third period, was being saved, quite literally, by goalie Adam Geragosian (36 saves) and miscues on offense by UNH, which with its top line of Jacob Micflikier, Brett Hemingway and Daniel Winnik (seven points total) seemed to have a new creative play on each scoring chance.

UNH did get the better of the Huskies eventually, as goals by Hemingway and Winnik finished off the game and eventually put the final at a 3-3 tie. NU now stands at a 1-15-4 all-time in Durham.

“It’s 3-1, I thought we were playing well, but against this team, you just can’t turn the puck over,” Cronin said. “You have to manage the puck very intelligently because they thrive on turnovers. You throw pucks to the middle and it’s a wave of white jerseys coming back at you.”

Even UNH coach Dick Umile, his team still standing at 7-4-2 (6-2-1), seemed to think it was NU’s game to win.

“I told the guys to stay with it, and I’m glad they came back because I think [we] got an important point battling back here for a tie,” Umile said. “It’s a 60-minute game, and I’ve told them, you can’t have lapses. They had a lapse there with [NU’s] two quick goals.”

NU was outshot by just four in the first (8-4), two in the second (11-9) and then a full 10 in the third (20-10). It was a sign of where the game would go.

“We’re a young team, we run around and look crazy, I don’t understand it,” Cronin said. “You play fine for 50 minutes and then we just run around like chickens with our heads cut off. UNH almost capitalized a couple times and they probably should have. We had a little bit of luck in the last five minutes.”

Winnik skated straight down the ice with 5:33 remaining and put a point blank shot on Geragosian, but the junior netminder produced a quality glove save. Then, even in the final seconds, the onslaught continued. Winnik blasted a shot right off Geragosian with 22 seconds remaining.

“After two periods, Coach said they were going to come out strong in the third,” Geragosian said. “We thought we saw their best in the second; we were kidding ourselves. They have so many gifted forwards, so it’s tough to contain them.”

UNH began the scoring 49 seconds into the middle frame when Hemingway lethargically tapped in a Micflikier pass to the right of the slot. NU, though, responded with two surprising goals.

Freshman Dennis McCauley, easing toward the net on a 2-on-1, mocked a pass to the middle and moved to the net alone, firing a shot at UNH goalie Jeff Pietrasiak (21 saves). The puck bounced off and McCauley was able to put the rebound in.

Then, just 12 seconds later, speedy NU forward Bryan Esner intercepted a UNH defenseman pass and skated toward the goal alone, putting home a slap shot from the top of the slot. The lead grew to two goals when freshman forward Ryan Ginand made his way to Pietrasiak 2:52 into the third, and stuffed the puck into the goal.

The turning point of the game took place with 11:03 remaining. It appeared as if NU forward Joe Vitale had athletically banged the puck into the net to give the Huskies’ a 4-1 lead. However, much to Cronin’s chagrin, the call was that Vitale had high-sticked the puck in and that it was no goal.

“I saw that [defenseman] Steve Birnstill had blooped it from the net, and then Joe took it,” Cronin said. “Usually when this happens someone on the bench will say ‘high stick’ right away, but the whole bench saw it. They all thought it was a great goal. ‘An ESPN highlight goal,’ I thought. Then, I see this conversation taking place among the referees, and I’m thinking, ‘What the hell are they talking about?'”

Hemingway then tapped in a one-timer nine seconds later, before Winnik lifted a shot past Geragosian with 9:07 remaining to tie the game, 3-3.

On Nov. 19 at the Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, NU lost to Boston College, 5-3. NU was helped by three veterans in Yale Lewis, Brian Swiniarski and Joe Santilli, who all scored and brought NU back from a 3-2 deficit to a 3-3 tie. BC, though, took over a 3-3 game at the end with two straight goals to seal the victory.