Down 4-2 with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, the Minutemen of UMass-Amherst scored twice six-on-five, including Martin Miljko’s tying marker at 19:53 force an overtime draw with the Colgate Red Raiders.
The third UMass goal had come at 18:25, when Tim Turner scored with helpers from Luke Duplessis and Toni Soderholm. Then Soderholm found Martin Miljko wide-open, camping out at the back door on the left side of the net to tie the score at 4-4 with seven seconds remaining.
Kevin Johns gave Colgate the 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.
Colgate then built the lead to 4-2 at 12:15 of the third period on an unusual goal by Chad MacDonald. The puck bounced off his skate on a Sam Sturgis pass, at which point it looked as though the game was in the hands of the Red Raiders.
The Red Raiders held the 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 Martin Miljko from Samuli Jalkanen and Joey Culgin, a man-advantage set up after Colgate was whistled for too many men on the ice 1:21 into its own 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.
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 which beat 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 Helanen in front of the net, but the puck trickled out to open space where Nicholson cranked a slap shot that went five-hole past Helanen.
