NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – UMass Dartmouth's senior captain Mike Kelly (Stoneham, Mass.) scored with 1.9 seconds remaining in the overtime period, to lead the Corsairs to a 5-4 victory over the visiting Worcester State Lancers.
With the win, the Corsairs start the 2016-17 campaign with a 1-0 record overall and in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), while the Lancers slip to an 0-2 overall record, and 0-1 in conference.
UMass Dartmouth got the scoring started early as Jerry Laakso (Tampere, Finland) found fellow junior Mike Sones (Waterdown, Ont.) to give the Corsairs the advantage at 6:04. Worcester State would tie the game up at 1-1, when Mitchell Purdie (Cavan, Ont.) potted the Crissostomos Villarreal (Corona, Calif.) pass into the back of the UMass Dartmouth goal. The hosts would gain back the advantage before the close of the stanza, though, Sones tallied his second of the game with 14 seconds to go in the period on the pass from Casey Shea (Woburn, Mass.).
In the second period, the Lancers would answer back with a goal at 13:15 from newcomer Connor McKenzie (Nashville, Tenn.) to knot the game up at two. With two minutes remaining, Shea found the cutting Laakso, who redirected the puck past the Lancer goalkeeper, but the lead was short-lived again. Worcester State answered back with a Kyle Griffin (Marlboro, Mass.) goal just 24 seconds later to put the margin at 3-all at the end of the period.
Sones would pick up his first collegiate hat trick at the 2:15 marker into the third period of play, but again the Lancers responded, as Cody Slocum (Temecula, Calif.) kept hacking away at the loose puck in front of Corsairs goalie Drew Michals (Newton, Mass.) until it eventually trickled in.
In overtime, play went back and forth until Joe Echelmeier (Doylestown, Pa.) found a streaking Kelly to connect the cross-ice pass mid-stride to set up the game-winning goal.
Michals withstood the barrage of Lancer shots, making 47 saves in just under 65 minutes of ice time. Junior Tyler Fallica (Coram, N.Y.) made 29 stops between the pipes for the Lancers, but took the loss.
Worcester State outshot the Corsairs 51-34, but UMass Dartmouth held the slight advantage on face-offs winning 47-45 on the contest. In a high-scoring affair, UMass Dartmouth went 3-8 on the power play, while the Lancers went 3-10 on the night.
UMass Dartmouth hits the road for a tough task against #3/4 UMass Boston on Saturday afternoon, starting at 4 p.m., while the Lancers open up their home slate against Franklin Pierce on the same day at 7 p.m.
Release Courtesy of UMass Dartmouth Sports Information