Working Overtime

For all of the NCAA basketball that was on this past weekend, the most intriguing college postseason game was the men's hockey NCAA quarterfinal between Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota Saturday night.

Or should that be Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Minnesota-Duluth led 2-0 before UND tied it with two late goals, forcing overtime. TigerBlog figured that overtime playoff hockey is pretty exciting, and so he decided to switch over from basketball to check it out.

It wasn't too long before Minnesota-Duluth scored, even if it was, to borrow a soccer expression, very much against the run of play. Or should that be the skate of play? Either way, North Dakota was in control and almost scored two or thee times before Minnesota-Duluth countered.

With no real rooting interest in the game, TB was happy he'd gotten to see the overtime. That was that, he figured.

When he woke up Sunday morning, though, he saw a tweet from his friend and colleague at Penn Mike Mahoney in which he offered apologies to the two teams but that he just couldn't watch any longer. What the heck?

That's when TB looked a little closer and saw that the goal he saw had been disallowed by an offsides call. Instead of game over, it was instead play on - and on and on and on and on. In fact, it went all the way into the fifth overtime before Minnesota-Duluth once again scored.

Luke Mylymok, on the 119th shot of the game, in the 5th overtime, seals the 3-2 overtime win for @UMDMensHockey over North Dakota with the five-hole goal.https://t.co/TnWQttKsER pic.twitter.com/fVyVLh8ogd

— Eliteprospects (@eliteprospects) March 28, 2021

It was the longest game in NCAA tournament history, going 142:13. Should there have been a shootout instead at some point? Nooooooooo. If anything, maybe take players off the ice, like the NHL does.

The game featured three goalies who combined to make 114 saves. North Dakota's Adam Scheel made 51 saves, while Duluth starter Zach Stejskal made 57 before having to come out of the game due to an injury in the fourth overtime. 

In his place came Ryan Fanti, who made six saves of his own. How would you like to have been Fanti? You sit there for more than the equivalent of two full games and then have to jump in cold with all of that pressure on? 

When overtime begins, the adrenaline flows for everyone, as both teams are determined to end it quickly. That's what Princeton has done recently on some of its biggest postseason hockey goals.

The women won the 2020 ECAC championship game on an overtime goal by Mariah Keoppeless than a minute in against Cornell. The men won the 2018 ECAC championship game on Max Becker's goal 2:37 in against Clarkson.

That's the other thing about overtime. The game-winning goal stays with you forever. Just ask Keoppel and Becker.

There's an excitement about overtime in sports played where the next goal wins (such as soccer, lacrosse and hockey) and the knowledge that any one misstep can be the difference between a win and a loss in a game in which two teams have proven themselves to be even to that point. In the regular season in a sport like lacrosse, NCAA tournament bids often are decided by such moments, and there is no category in selections for a near-miss.

It's even more excruciating in the postseason. The difference between the teams in the game and the difference between the outcomes for winning (advancing on in the tournament or even winning the championship) and losing (it's just over) are extreme. 

TB has seen Princeton teams on both sides of that equation.

Princeton has won, for instance, nine NCAA lacrosse championships between the men and the women, and of those nine, more than half - five - have been won in overtime. 

On the flip side, TB has been there when Princeton has lost NCAA lacrosse games in overtime. Those are just gut-wrenching. One second there is nothing but hope. The next second it's gone.

The reactions of the teams that lose such games are often the same. They either slump to the ground in disbelief and sadness, or they look around as if there is some other card left to play, some way to change the outcome.

In the case of the hockey game Saturday (and Sunday), that actually happened on the first overtime goal. The offsides call did change the outcome, though not in the way North Dakota would have wanted. No, instead it just prolonged it, and ultimately changed it from an exciting NCAA tournament game to one that made history.