BURLINGTON, Vt. – Michigan Tech senior defenseman Lars Helminen scored the game-winning goal 39 seconds into overtime to lift the Huskies to a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against No. 10 Vermont in front of the 39th straight sellout crowd of 4,003 at Gutterson Fieldhouse. It marked just the second overtime loss in the last 18 overtime contests for the Catamounts who fell to 2-1-1 on the season. With the win MTU improved to 2-1-0 on the year.
“We just had trouble getting anything going really and generating any offense” Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “I think their game started to get better as the game wore on and we unfortunately went the other way. Credit them but we made three really bad mistakes tonight that ended up in the back of our net. When they made mistakes we weren’t able to capitalize.”
Vermont took a 1-0 lead at 13:16 of the first period when freshman forward Colin Vock (Plymouth, Mich.) notched a power-play goal from inside the slot. Vock’s second career goal was setup by sophomore Corey Carlson (Two Harbors, Minn.) and senior assistant captain Chris Myers (South Boston, Mass.).
Early in the second period freshman Brian Roloff (West Seneca, N.Y.) extended Vermont’s lead to 2-0 with a goal during a 4-on-4. Freshman Patrick Cullity (Tewksbury, Mass.) and Myers each assisted on the play. The score at 2:20 of the second period marked the first goal of Roloff’s career and for Cullity it was his first career point in his first ever game.
Michigan Tech responded at 4:19 of the second when sophomore defenseman Geoff Kinrade recorded his first goal of the year to pull Michigan Tech within one goal at 2-1.
Vock made it 3-1 Vermont when he scored his second goal of the game at 8:29 of the second period during a 4-on-4. Carlson set up the goal by winning a face off at the right circle and the puck went to an open Vock who fired in a wrist shot from inside the slot. It was a team high third goal of the season for Vock.
Just 30 seconds later junior defenseman Tyler Shelast pulled Michigan Tech within one goal again. Shelast got the puck at the redline and skated in alone on UVM junior goalie Joe Fallon (Bemidji, Minn.) and scored on a wrist shot.
Michigan Tech tied the game at three at 5:02 of the third period. MTU freshman defenseman Eli Vlaisavljevich scored during a 4-on-4 on a pass from junior forward Peter Rouleau from behind the net.
Then just 39 seconds into overtime Helminen scored the game-winner for the Huskies to give Vermont its first loss in the month of October in the last two seasons (8-1-1).
Fallon made 14 saves for the Catamounts while sophomore goalie Michael-Lee Teslak made 15 for the Huskies. Vermont went 1-for-8 on the power play and MTU was 0-for-5.
Vermont takes on Michigan Tech again on Saturday at 7:05pm at Gutterson Fieldhouse. It’s Halloween at the ‘Gut’ so fans are encouraged to wear a costume! Saturday’s game is sold out and can be heard live on the flagship station for Vermont hockey on WVMT-AM 620 and on the Internet by going to www.sportsjuice.com or seen on a pay-per-view basis for $6.00 via B2 Networks by logging onto www.uvmathletics.com.
GAME NOTES ... MTU leads the all-time series against Vermont 2-1-1 ... Tonight’s game was the first ever for the Huskies at Gutterson Fieldhouse ... Vermont is now 5-1-1 in its last seven games against teams from the WCHA ... With two assists Chris Myers recorded the sixth multi-point game of his career and with two assists Corey Carlson recorded the fourth multi-point game of his career ... UVM is 5-2-11 in its last 18 overtime games ... Former Vermont assistant coach Damian DiGiulian made his debut as a color analyst on the WVMT-AM 620 broadcast.