Hamden, CT -- Sophomore
Luke Cain scored the game-winning goal in overtime to lift the 17th-ranked Union College men's ice hockey team to a 2-1 win at Quinnipiac on Saturday night at the TD Bank Sports Center. The win jumped the Dutchmen over Quinnipiac for first place in the ECAC Hockey standings. Union is now 6-0-3 in conference play, while Quinnipiac is 7-6-0.
Cain's goal came on a wrap-around opportunity with 2:41 remaining in the game. The goal was his first of the season and sixth of his career.
Senior forward
Jason Walters registered an assist for his 100th career point, becoming the fourth Dutchmen in Division I history to accomplish the feat. He is fourth all-time in the team's DI history for points and is only 14 points away from tying Jordan Webb '05 for the top spot.
The contest was expected to be high scoring with the Dutchmen entering the game third in the nation, averaging 3.75 goals per game, while the Bobcats were fifth with 3.60 goal per game.
The outing also pitted two of the top power-play units in the country against each other as Union ranked fifth (24.1 percent) and Quinnipiac was eighth (23.5 percent). Both teams challenged each other on special teams with the first two goals of the game coming on the power play. The teams took a combined 13 penalties in the game.
Junior
Corey Milan, who made his first conference start since making 34 saves in a 3-3 tie against sixth-ranked Yale on Nov. 7, stood strong for Union turning away 23 shots, including 13 in the second period.
Despite being outshot, 10-6, Quinnipiac escaped the first period up 1-0 thanks to a power-play goal by senior Eric Lampe, who stuffed in his 10th goal of the season at 15:00 while Milan was knocked to his back.
The goal came only moments after junior
Adam Presizniuk was denied on a breakaway off an outlet pass by senior
Mario Valery-Trabucco. Senior
Mike Schreiber claimed the rebound and fed to Walters on the door step, but his try just trickled wide.
Walters got to the century mark after intercepting a pass at the right point and finding Trabucco down low, evening the score at 1-1 at 7:29 of the second. The assist, which extended Walters' scoring streak to 12 games, was his 13th of the season and 62nd of his career -- second all-time in team history. As for the goal, it was Trabucco's 12th of the season and 48th of his career -- also second all-time.
Union will take on cross-town rival RPI, which comes to Messa Rink at 7:07 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16. Tickets for that game can be purchased online at
UnionAthleticsTickets.com.
