Box Score SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt.—Senior captain Mike Kuhn (Holbrook, Mass.) muscled home assistant captain John Houston's (Pittsburgh, Pa.) rebound, to lift #7/8 UMass Boston men's hockey (11-2-1, 7-1 ECAC East) to a 5-4 overtime victory over host Saint Michael's College (5-7-2, 4-4-1 ECAC East) Saturday afternoon
After falling behind 3-1 entering the third period and trailing 4-3 with under a minute to play, junior transfer Matt Lemire (Townsend, Mass.) scored the game-tying goal with 42 seconds remaining and Kuhn added his team-leading fourth game-winner of the season with 1:51 to go in the extra session, to help the Beacons snap a season-high three-game winless streak. With his overtime tally, Kuhn set a new season-high with his first career 20-point season.
Lemire's first collegiate goal and first goal as a Beacon, capped off a third period that saw UMass Boston outscore the host Purple Knights 3-1. The junior transfer from Quinnipiac University was playing in his fourth game as a Beacon and his 25th collegiate contest.
Junior Mike Miller (Wrentham, Mass.) and senior Nathan Milam (Westland, Mich.) also scored in the period, to help UMass Boston break out of a funk, that had seen the Beacons suffer their first two defeats and their first tie, after a 10-0-0 first semester.
Freshman Colin Larkin (Waterford, Mich.) scored the opening goal of the contest and added an assist on the game-winner, while Houston, in only his second game back from an injury, tallied the primary assist on each of the Beacons' final two goals.
Junior goalie Billy Faust (Alta Loma, Calif.) stopped a season-high 30 shots to stay unbeaten at 4-0-1. After being pulled with less than 90 seconds to play, Faust had to make just one save in the overtime to keep the Beacons alive.
Saint Michael's College goalie Michael Comitini nearly backed his team to an upset victory, as the junior stopped a season-high 40 shots, including 22 between the third period and the extra session.
Connor Mitchell and AJ Pieprzak led the Purple Knights with a goal and an assist each, while Jeremy Wong and Mike Schreiner also tallied goals for the hosts. Saint Michael's is in the midst of a three-game stretch against nationally-ranked opponents, with the Purple Knights falling 7-1 Friday night to #3/4 Babson College
Nothing came easy for UMass Boston in the contest, as they led for just three minutes and 43 seconds.
Larkin gave UMass Boston their first lead of the contest just 49 seconds into the game, as the freshman second-line center scored his fourth goal of the season to give the Beacons a 1-0 advantage.
Wong evened the score at 4:32 of the period, as the senior forward took passes from Nick Potter and John Teullings, before beating Faust to tie the game at 1-1.
Mitchell gave Saint Michael's a 2-1 edge just over six minutes later, with Pieprzak and Stephen Inman picking up assists on the play.
The second period would be a slightly more even period, as the Purple Knights outshot the Beacons 13-11, with Schreiner scoring the lone goal of the stanza at 18:42.
UMass Boston finally solved Comitini at 3:33 of the third period, as Miller's fifth goal of the season cut the deficit to 3-2. Juniors Peter MacIntyre (Norfolk, Mass.) and Andrew Crawford (Medford, Mass.) were credited with assists on the play.
Milam evened the game at 3-3 at 10:16, when the senior tipped home a Dan Cornell (Abington, Mass.) rebound to tie the game.
Saint Michael's appeared primed to pull of the upset in the final minutes though, as Pieprzak scored off of Mitchell and William Côté assists with 1:47 to play.
After a Beacons timeout, UMass Boston pulled their goalie for just the third time all season, as the Beacons desperately searched for the equalizer. Lemire came through in the clutch, as he tipped home a Houston one-timer, to tie the game at 4-4 with 42 seconds to play. Sophomore Tyler Bishop (Ramsay, N.J.) picked up a second assist on the play.
UMass Boston came away with the victory in overtime thanks to a goal right off a face-off. Larkin won the draw back to Houston, whose shot got knocked down in front of the net, only to have Kuhn slip it past Comitini for a 5-4 win at 3:09 of overtime.
After being outshot 26-19 through the first two periods, UMass Boston outshot the hosts 26-8 the rest of the way to earn a 45-34 advantage. Both teams struggled on the power-play, as UMass Boston finished 0-for-3 and Saint Michael's ended the day 0-for-4.
The Beacons will return to non-conference action Wednesday night, when the Beacons travel to Boston University's Walter Brown Arena to take on Wentworth Institute of Technology at 7:30 p.m.
