Tim Turner and Martin Miljko scored with the goaltender pulled in the last 1:35 on Saturday to lift UMass-Amherst to a 4-4 tie with Colgate.
Colgate built a 4-2 lead at 12:15 of the third period on an unusual goal by Chad MacDonald, when the puck bounced off his skate on a Sam Sturgis pass and into the net.
But Amherst forced the extra session with back-to-back goals with the goaltender pulled. The first came at 18:25 when Turner scored with helpers from Luke Duplessis and Toni Soderholm. Then Soderholm found Miljko camping out at the back door on the left side of the net to tie the score at 4 with seven seconds remaining.
Kevin Johns gave Colgate a 3-2 advantage at 8:28 of the third period off a feed from Sean Nolan. Nolan, who was behind the net on the left side of UMA goaltender Markus Helanen, skated up and found Johns on the right side in front of the net. Johns put a stick on Nolan’s pass and beat Helanen glove side for his first goal of the season.
The Red Raiders held an early 1-0 lead when Nolan capitalized on Colgate’s first power-play chance just 2:31 into the contest. Nolan recorded his fifth goal of the season off feeds from Scooter Smith and Mike O’Malley. Smith carried the puck into the zone, splitting two UMass-Amherst defensemen on the left side and setting up a two-on-one with Nolan. Smith slid the pass to Nolan on the right wing and he ripped his shot to Helanen’s glove side.
UMA got on the board at 16:34 with a power-play marker by Miljko from Samuli Jalkanen and Joey Culgin. The power-play opportunity was set up after Colgate was whistled for too many men on the ice 1:21 into their power-play chance at 15:06. Following a 39-second span of four-on-four action, the Minutemen converted 49 seconds into their power-play opportunity.
The Minutemen took a 2-1 advantage at 9:33 of the second period on a rifling shot by Thomas Pock five feet inside the blue line beating Lefevre just over his blocker.
Colgate’s Matt Nicholson evened the score at 2-2 at the 12:16 mark of the second period with his first collegiate goal. Colgate’s Smith tried to stuff the puck past Halanen in front of the net but the puck trickled out to open space where Nicholson cranked a slap shot that went past Helanen.
