Medvedev's OT Winner Sends Hockey To Playoffs

Sophomore Danyil Medvedev (Boston, Mass.) scored 14 seconds into overtime to lift the Suffolk University Hockey team to a 5-4 victory over Western New England University and help clinch the number six seed in this weekend's upcoming ECAC Northeast Hockey Playoff Tournament.

Medvedev sped in from the red line and up the right wing ripping off a shot outside the faceoff circle to score his seventh goal of the season and fourth game winner as Suffolk overcame a two-goal deficit in the first period and then almost lost a two-goal lead in the third.

It was a slow first period of action as sophomore Josh Twietmeyer (Everett, Wash.) scored the lone goal of the period when he put in a power-play goal with fifty-seven seconds left in the opening frame for the early Golden Bears lead.

Western New England would score three goals in the game on the power-play. Their second came just ninety-three seconds into the second period when sophomore Dane Genord (Grand Blanc, Mich.) would strike for his team leading eighth goal of the season.

While the opening 30 minutes of the contest were relatively mild, the following 30:14 would be physical and back and forth.

Western New England would switch out goalies three times in the second period as Suffolk came storming back to take a 4-2 lead by the end of the stanza.

Senior Tim Sprague (Plymouth, Mass.) got Suffolk on the board when he took a feed from sophomore Brett Lawson (Milford, Mass.) for the Rams' first goal of the period. Junior Tyler Heineman (Randolph, N.J.) would even the game midway through the second period when he let off a wrister from the blue line to make it a 2-2 game.

Junior Stanton Turner (San Francisco, Calif.) would score his team leading 16^th goal of the season at the 10:18 mark to give Suffolk their first lead of the afternoon as they escaped the two goal deficit. Turner's goal would chase Golden Bears' senior goaltender Tim Carr (Pine Bush, N.Y.) from the game in favor of freshman Scott Brown (Sewickley, Pa.). Brown would stop all six shots he faced over an eight minute span but was forced to be removed from the game after a collision late in the period.

Sophomore Connor Lawrence (White Plains, N.Y.) would put Suffolk up by two goals when he scored the Rams' lone power-play goal of the game with forty-one second remaining in the second period as he took an assist from Sprague to make it a 4-2 contest.

The third period would be a physical one that saw the two teams rack up a combined 14 penalties, a pair of game misconducts and a pair of game disqualifications.

With less than five minutes remaining in the period, senior Andy Cramer (New Wilmington, Pa.) would cut the Suffolk lead in half when he knocked in his sixth goal of the season for the Golden Bears.

Following a timeout, senior Brandon Stroud (Clarksville, Ind.) would score Western New England's third power-play goal of the contest and his seventh of the season to make it a 4-4 game with 2:54 remaining on the clock.

Freshman Kyle Wilkinson (Pascoag, R.I.) would make 15 totals saves in the relief effort for Western New England in goal including stopping all 13 shots he faced in the third period to help force overtime.

Medvedev's goal was his seventh on the season.

Junior Brandon Smolarek (Chesterfield, Mich.) made 28 saves for Suffolk in the victory.

Both teams entered the game hoping the capture this sixth and final seed for the upcoming conference tournament. Western New England needed a victory to advance, while Suffolk needed just a tie to move on.

The loss ends the 2014-15 regular season now for the Golden Bears who fall to a 5-16-3 overall record, and 5-9 mark in the ECAC Northeast.

Suffolk (11-12-2, 5-7-2 ECAC NE) now advances to Saturday as they will travel to third-seed Johnson & Wales University. Both the Wildcats and Rams split a pair of overtime decisions this season as the visitor was victorious in each contest. Johnson & Wales enters the playoffs with a 14-10-1 overall record and 8-6 conference mark. Both teams also met in last year's quarterfinals round, with the Wildcats coming out victorious by a 7-0 final.