UMass Wins Hockey East Tournament Opener During Longest Game In Division I History
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Shane Walsh scored the winning goal 11:42 into the fifth overtime to lead UMass to a 4-3 victory over Notre Dame in the longest game in NCAA Division I ice hockey history.
The first-round Hockey East tournament matchup lasted 151 minutes, 42 seconds, ending early Saturday morning and surpassing the previous mark of 150:22 in five overtimes between Quinnipiac and Union in 2010.
"I'm awfully proud and happy for our guys," said UMass coach John Micheletto, whose 12th-seed Minutemen won their first Hockey East tournament game since 2009.
Notre Dame's Cal Petersen set a Division I record with 87 saves, eclipsing the previous mark of 78 by RPI's Dick Greenlaw against Boston University in 1965. UMass' Steve Mastalerz finished with 75 saves in the victory.
"You like them to be rewarded," Micheletto said. "They believed and stuck to the game plan."
Irish defenseman Robbie Russo, who had three assists, said it was a tough way to lose.
"It felt like it was never going to end," Russo said. "It just felt like the puck was never going to go in."
The teams were scheduled to return to the ice at Notre Dame's Compton Family Ice Arena to resume the best-of-three series about 18 hours after this game ended. Fatigue was on the minds of both coaches after the game that took nearly six hours to complete.
"That's the way hockey is," Irish coach Jeff Jackson said. "Just like baseball, you play 100 innings if it's a tie game."
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