Fairfield (4-11-2, 2-7-2) and Sacred Heart (5-8-2, 5-3-1) played two periods of scoreless hockey, traded goals in the first minute and the second to last minute of the third and played a scoreless overtime to finish in a 1-1 tie Friday at the Wonderland of Ice.
Chris Mokos scored the Sacred Heart goal, while Casey Laflamme recorded Fairfield’s tally with just 1:44 to send the game into overtime.
Neither team had many quality scoring chances in the first two periods. Sacred Heart did however hit a post midway through the second, and Rae Metz nearly finished a shorthanded breakaway later in the same frame for Fairfield.
With just 28 seconds expired in the third period Mokos collected a breakout pass from Martin Paquet, found himself on a two-on-one and picked the short side corner above the Fairfield goaltender Michael Wolfe’s left shoulder.
Wolfe would later avenge the goal with his first collegiate assist as he fired a puck up to a waiting Tim Desmarais at the far blue line, who carried it deep into the Sacred Heart zone then found Laflamme in the slot, who snapped it home low to the far side, forcing the extra frame.
The Stags pressured through OT. Both rookie Brian Payant and junior Steve Calderara had quality scoring chances but to no avail.
Wolfe would finish with 13 stops on the night including three in overtime. Sacred Heart’s Eddy Ferhi made 19 stops, with two coming in the extra frame.
Fairfield held the shot advantage 20-14, and won the special teams battle going 1-5 on the power play to Sacred Heart’s 0-4.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow night at five p.m. at the Milford Ice Pavilion.
