LEWISTON — Maryland Black Bears forward Conor Cole put a loose puck in the Nordiques crease into the net and his teammates came off the bench to celebrate what they thought was a win over the Maine Nordiques for the second straight night on Saturday.

After celebrating on the ice, the Black Bears went to the locker room. The Nordiques, however, stayed put on their bench and wanted the officials to get together because they felt there was goaltender interference on goalie Avery Sturtz.

“I saw they moved (the puck) to the guy (skating) down, and I tried to get out as far as I could,” Sturtz said. “I got a piece of it, but it kind of trickled through my legs, and all of sudden I saw this big yellow (Maryland) jersey coming at me and barreled right through me. Obviously, when the puck was still laying there in the crease, I tried to somehow make the save, it trickled in somehow.”

After a lengthy conference — there’s no video review in the NAHL — the three officials overturned the goal call at the 2:11 mark of the overtime session.

The home fans at The Colisee erupted when the goal was overturned, and the Nordiques used the momentum to defeat the Black Bears 3-2 in a shootout in an East Division game.

Maryland coach Clint Mylymok said the referees interpreted the goalie interference rule wrong, since he saw Sturtz (36 saves) outside the crease.

“That’s the exact same call we had a goal scored against us in Johnstown awhile back,” Mylymok said. “The rule is: If the goalie is outside his crease, there’s no goalie (interference), and (Sturtz) was about two feet outside his crease. (The referee) went with whatever the (linesman) saw. That’s the unfortunate part: The linesman didn’t see correctly from what I just saw.

“Our guys worked hard, and we were a shorthanded team for the weekend. It was a gritty effort. I wouldn’t say we got (aggrieved), it’s the game, mistakes are going to be made, but it should have been four points (for the weekend) instead of three.”

Once Maryland (27-16-11, 65 points) returned to the ice, they still had 38 seconds of 4-on-3 power play time.

“When we get the disallowed goal there, we don’t want them to be on the power play,” Maine Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “Maybe we were asking a little too much, leaving the bench like that when the referees hadn’t met at the referee’s circle, we were even asking a delay of game. I think we were over asking there. All we needed was a second chance, and the boys took care of it.”

The Nordiques (18-24-10, 46 points) killed the power play off, highlighted by Filip Wiberg’s shorthanded breakaway in which his shot attempt went wide.

The teams went to a shootout for a second straight night. Nordiques forward Jonny Meiers scored in the second round for the only goal of the shootout.

“We had a lot of momentum and energy from that (disallowed) goal,” Meiers said. “Seeing the team leave the ice, we weren’t happy. To see them come back out to play us one more time to see who wins the game was awesome. I’m glad it worked out in our favor — we deserved it, we played unbelievable tonight.”

Miles Gunty knocked down the puck to give the Black Bears a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. The Nordiques contested that the puck was knocked in with a high stick, but the referees conferred with each other and ruled it a goal.

One of the Nordiques’ best chances of the first period came on the penalty kill. Forward Tristan Fasig dug the puck out of the corner and sent a pass to Ignat Belov in the slot, but Belov’s shot went wide.

The game opened up in the middle of the second period, with both teams having chances to score.

Defenseman Seth Murch tied the game at 1-1 when his slap shot hit the inside of the far post at the 11:21 mark. Forwards Theo Thrun and Reese Farrell had the assists.

It was Murch’s first NAHL goal of his career, as he’s on the roster as an affiliate call-up from the Seacoast Spartans 18U team based out of Exeter, New Hampshire.

“Seth is such the student of the game and his character is beyond measure, for sure,” Pinchevsky said. “I love guys, when they are so detailed and so disciplined all the time, get rewarded.”

Maine carried the momentum when Caden Pattison jammed the puck past Maryland goalie Luca Di Pasquo (28 saves) 91 seconds after Murch’s goal.

Jack Kurrle and Meiers had the assists on Pattison’s goal.

“We play with a lot of jam, and we mix well together,” Pattison said. “I am glad we are starting to (click as a line) when it matters the most at the end (of the season).”

Pattison nearly had a goal early in the period, but Black Bears defenseman Trayce Johnson stopped the puck from going in the net.

The back-and-forth second period continued when Cole slid the puck through Sturtz’s five-hole with about five minutes remaining in the period to tie the game at 2-2.

“He got the (goal) back for us like a good captain does,” Mylymok said. “I thought leadership was strong this weekend.”

Maryland dominated much of the third period but couldn’t find the back of the net.

“Usually when you have a high-scoring game (the night before), it usually reverts back to the teams realized we need to play better defense,” Mylymok said. “… There was a lot of energy last night and a lot of guys were going hard, and it’s tough to do that back-to-back. The third period was in (the Nordiques defensive end), and (Sturtz) made some saves. We had some good looks, but we couldn’t cash in.”

The Nordiques next head to Danbury, Connecticut, on Friday and Saturday to take on the Jr. Hat Tricks. Then on Sunday, they head to Attleboro, Massachusetts, to face the Northeast Generals.