O'Brien Scores Double OT Winner to Beat Colgate in Game 3

Sunday, March 6

Hanover, N.H.

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

16-15-1

Colgate

11-24-2

Team	1	2	3	OT 1	OT 2	F
Colgate	1	0	2	0	0	3
Dartmouth	1	0	2	0	1	4

Dartmouth Erases Early Deficit to Keep Winning at Colgate

O'Brien Scores Double OT Winner to Beat Colgate in Game 3

3/6/2016 9:03:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – Playing in his final game at Thompson Arena, senior Tim O'Brien scored the double-overtime game-winning goal to defeat Colgate, 4-3, in Game 3 of the ECAC Hockey First Round.

O'Brien finished off a great play from his freshmen linemates John Ernsting and Alex Jasiek with a well-placed wrist shot inside the left goal post as he skated through the slot, sending those faithful fans still in attendance after 84:37 of play into a frenzy.

“I was glad it was a really good goal by a senior in their last home game,” head coach Bob Gaudet said. “These guys will have a memory of winning their last game in Thompson in double overtime against a really good Colgate team for the rest of their lives.”

The Big Green (16-15-1) will now move on to play Yale in the ECAC Hockey Championship Quarterfinals next weekend at Ingalls Rink in New Haven.

Sunday's game only reached overtime and the subsequent second extra session because of a frantic stretch of 3:59 in the third period in which both teams each scored a pair of goals.

The Raiders' (11-24-2) Tim Harrison scored the go-ahead goal only to be answered 16 seconds later by junior Josh Hartley and shorthanded blast into the top of the net. The incredible shot came after a great play by O'Brien to track down a puck behind the net and hit the Dartmouth defenseman at the top of the circles.

Derrick Freeman then poked home a loose puck in the crease at 7:06 to give Colgate another lead at 3-2 lead, but Nick Bligh notched it up at three-all just 59 seconds later on the doorstep. Troy Crema and Brad Schierhorn cycled the puck below the goal line before the latter slipped a backhanded pass behind the net to a waiting Bligh at the near post for the equalizer.

The two teams traded goals in the opening period with Tylor Spink and Carl Helser sending the ECAC Hockey rivals to the locker rooms after 20 minutes tied at 1-1.

But the story was the winner in the first-ever overtime in 10 all-time Game 3's for Dartmouth and the goalie at the other end who made it all possible with 38 saves, including 13 in the extra sessions.

After not playing in either of the first two games of the series, senior Charles Grant got the start on Sunday and was outstanding in four and a quarter periods of play, making numerous point-blank saves to keep the Big Green's season alive.

“I told the team that Krugs (James Kruger) did a really good job for us but we have really good depth and we're putting in a fresh guy,” Gaudet remarked. “It's really hard to play three games in three days.

“I thought Chuck got better and better as the game progressed. He made some really good control saves,” Gaudet added.

Three total penalties were called in the game with neither scoring on the man-advantage.

“What a great game,” the head coach said outside of an understandably loud locker room. “It was two teams that over the course of the season there was a lot of yapping but tonight there's a lot of mutual respect.

“Both teams battled and no one deserved to lose that game,” Gaudet said. “It had come down to whether someone was going to have enough energy to make a play.”

Colgate ended the Green's 2014-15 campaign with a two-game sweep in the quarterfinal round, making Sunday's thrilling win a bit sweeter.