The Massachusetts hockey team took a big step towards solidifying its spot among the Hockey East elite Friday. But it didn’t come easy.

The Minutemen skated to a 1-1 draw with the Maine Black Bears in the teams’ first rematch since UMass’ shocking sweep of Maine in the Hockey East quarterfinals last March. James Solon scored his second goal of the season to give UMass (8-2-1, 5-2-1 Hockey East) an early edge, but Greg Moore countered with a laser wrist shot late in the second period to knot things up.

The goaltenders became the story, as UMass’ Gabe Winer kept things quite clean other than Moore’s goal, and Jimmy Howard was solid for the Black Bears (10-2-1, 5-2-1 HEA), though he didn’t have to make a large number of difficult stops. Deservedly, both goalies were named to the three stars list.

“Gabe came up huge, the game could have been over in the first 15 minutes, and we have to thank Gabe for reading the situation so well,” UMass coach Don Cahoon said of his sophomore netminder.

Thanks to Winer, the Minutemen escaped the first period with the lead, despite playing “scrambled eggs,” according to Cahoon. His net protection also allowed Solon to open up the scoring. Stephen Werner streaked up the left wing boards, and went to rotate around Howard’s net. But before he got behind the cage, he slipped the puck back to Solon, who was charging towards the crease. The sophomore from Acton slid a wrister under Howard, and put most of the 6,044 in attendance on their feet.

Although the crowd numbered over 1,000 less than the one that showed up to the Nov. 14 game against Boston College, it was significantly louder.

After Solon’s tally, Maine began to storm Winer’s net, and hit two posts. But the Black Bears couldn’t put one past the sophomore from Stoughton until 19:18 of the second, when the wall he had built sprung a leak.

Michelle Leveille sent a beautiful mid-ice pass to Moore, who went in alone on Winer and fired a high wrister from the top of the faceoff circles, knotting the game and taking away some of the momentum the Minutemen had enjoyed during the middle frame.

“I’m happy with the way we played,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said. “I think a point on the road against [UMass] is a hard-fought point. We played hard, and we fought hard to earn the tie, it was a good effort.”

It was the first meeting of the two teams since last season’s Hockey East quarterfinal, where the Minutemen swept Maine in Orono to gain the team’s first-ever berth in the Hockey East semifinal.

Other than Moore’s tally, Winer was stellar, turning aside all manner of attempts, including a penalty shot. Peter Trovato covered up a puck in the crease as the Black Bears swarmed, giving Colin Shields an unabated shot at what would have been the tying goal at 3:18 of the second. But Shields fired a low wrist shot that Winer stopped easily to hold the lead and spark the Minutemen for the majority of the second period.

“Trovato caught the puck, and wasn’t too sure what to do with it once he had it, and he was in the crease,” Winer said. “When I saw Shields was taking it, he’s a really good shooter, so I knew he was going to try to beat me for the shot, so I just tried to cut down the angle as much as I could and make him try to beat me out of my crease.”

While Howard wasn’t tested quite as rigorously, he was very capable in turning away the chances the Minutemen came up with, including a pair during the tension-filled five minutes of overtime.

As well as his team has performed, Cahoon is reluctant to place it among the ranks of the elite in Hockey East.

“I think you’ve got to do it for another four or five years, then I’ll say we’re up there. We’re still pursuing that group. I’m real happy with the direction our team is heading in, but they’ve got flags hanging in their rink, they’ve got Hockey East trophies on the shelves up there. When we’ve got a few of those, I’ll say we’re with them.”

Notes: Junior Greg Mauldin was absent from the lineup for the third straight game. He is nursing a leg injury, and has been described as day-to-day, with the possibility of returning for Tuesday night’s game against Vermont at the Mullins Center … The Minutemen have held opponents to under 30 shots for 16 consecutive games.