The William Smith College ice hockey team earned the program's historic first victory topping Neumann 3-2 in overtime this afternoon.
Catherine Linehan notched the game winning goal to lift the Herons past the Knights.
Megan Messuri got the start in goal for William Smith and stood tall for three periods. She finished the afternoon with a career-high 57 saves.
After playing the first period to a scoreless draw, William Smith scored the game's first goal at the 16:03 mark of the second period. Utilizing a hard fore-check,
Krista Federow took the puck off of an opponent's stick, walked in all alone on the goalie and sent a shot top shelf to put the Herons up 1-0. The goal was Federow's team-leading third goal of the season.
At 11:55 of the third period, Neumann's Bek Lucas wristed a shot from the right faceoff circle past the Heron goalie to even the score at one. Less than four minutes later Bek Lucas sent a pass to Shanelle Doucette who beat William Smith's goalie to put the Knights up 2-1.
After taking a time out with just under two minutes to go in the game, William Smith pulled its goalie to get an extra skater out on the ice. The Herons took advantage of the extra player and tied the game at two at the 18:34 mark of the period.
Dori Craig collected a rebound and buried a shot.
With the game tied at the end of 60 minutes, The Herons and the Knights went to overtime. Just 13 seconds into the extra session, William Smith drew a penalty to give itself a power play opportunity. The Herons needed just 43 seconds of man advantage time to find the game-winner.
Rebecca Begley sent a crossing pass to
Hedi Droste who fired a shot from the point. Linehan, who was stationed in front of the goal redirected the shot past the Knight's goalie to tally the game-winner.
Justina Mayr got the start between the pipes for Neumann and made 19 saves on the contest.
The Knights outshot the Herons 59-22. William Smith was able to convert on one of their four power plays and killed off all seven of Neuman's.
The Herons will be back in action tomorrow, Nov. 23, when they face Neumann at 4 p.m. at The Cooler.
