The second game of the 51st Rensselaer/HSBC Holiday Hockey Tournament turned into the 12th-longest in NCAA history before Rensselaer’s Chris Migliore beat his hometown team with a goal at 10:20 of the second overtime.
Migliore, a native of Hamden, Conn., went high on a stickless Justin Eddy to give Rensselaer a 5-4 victory over Quinnipiac.
“I was going across and I thought the puck was going to come to me and I was going to give it back to Shields because we work on that in practice,” said Migliore. “But I didn’t even know he didn’t have a stick — I perhaps should have shot it low then. I guess I hit the crossbar and it went down; we’ve been hitting pipes all night.
“He’s a butterfly goalie and as I came across he went down and I got a lucky break off a pipe. It’s a great thing to beat my hometown team. I get to razz them a little when I go home.”
“Chris Migliore’s individual effort was unbelievable, and it was only fitting that he beats a team from his own hometown,” said Engineer head coach Dan Fridgen.
Migliore replaced John Carter in scoring the goal to end the longest Engineer game ever.
The Engineers did have to come back from a deficit to tie matters after opening up a 2-0 lead in the first 5:15 of the game. C.J. Hanafin scored his first collegiate goal before Andrew McPherson tipped a Scott Basiuk shot past Eddy on the power play to give the Engineers a 2-0 lead.
But Quinnipiac rallied to tie it up, starting with one in the first on a Ryan Olson power-play goal as he tipped a point shot between Nathan Marsters’ legs. In the second, Ryan Morton stole a puck from behind Marsters and tucked it past him shorthanded to tie the game.
The Engineers retook the lead when Jim Vickers floated a power-play shot past Eddy, but Quinnipiac claimed the advantage with the next two goals when Olson and Morton each connected for the second time on the evening.
The game was again tied after Carson Butterwick scored the Engineers’ third power-play goal of the evening late in the second period.
“With the exception of the second period, we played a pretty solid game,” said Fridgen. “We did a good job of rallying and taking it into overtime, and we started to dictate and initiate from that point on.”
“I’m not happy with the outcome, but I am happy with the way we played,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “We pushed RPI to the limit. The emotions in the third period and the overtime was extremely high, and I was trying to keep the guys contained. We were trying to bear down on every little play.”
Quinnipiac (7-7-1) will take on Niagara in the consolation game Saturday afternoon.
“Our character’s going to be tested tomorrow,” said Pecknold. “Niagara is rested and our kids are spent. We have some kids cramping up and we’re in trouble right now. I think in the long run though, this will help our building process and our team will get better.”
The Engineers (6-5-1), who played the longest game in their history, will play the Minutemen of UMass-Amherst in the championship game.
“I thought we had some real good individual efforts there,” said Fridgen. “As we shortened the bench there and worked more guys through the lineup we had some energy — I started it midway through the third period and continued to do it. It was nice to see Hanafin get his first goal. We would have liked to have ended the game earlier, but I am sure that UMass doesn’t mind.”
