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Minutemen Grab Classic Title In Overtime

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By CRISTINA LEDRA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 31, 2007

TAMPA - Matt Burto couldn't think of an easier way to score a goal.

But the ease of that goal, the overtime winner for the University of Massachusetts against Colorado College in the Lightning College Hockey Classic on Sunday night, was a vast departure from all the fight it took for the Minutemen to come away with the program's first championship.
Burto made a beeline from the bench to the Tigers' net, took a pass across the front of the goal from James Marcou and tapped in the game-winner into a wide-open net at 1:55 of overtime when Colorado College goalie Drew O'Connell committed in the other direction.

"This shows we know how to win and deal with winning and that's a big thing that we put two wins together against the No. 3 and 6-ranked teams in the country," Burto said. "It's huge. It's a huge step for us. We're just going to have to build off of it."

UMass (9-3-5) beat Notre Dame, which came into the tournament on a nine-game win streak, on Saturday to advance to the Classic final.
Colorado College (12-6-0) went out to a two-goal lead in the first period with goals from Jack Hillen and Eric Walsky.

The Tigers' penalty-killing unit was busy killing off two 5-on-3 situations, one of about a minute and a half around the 12-minute mark of the first period and the other of about 1:20 to start the second period.

Following the second 5-on-3, both teams opened up on offense.

Alex Berry shot a low wrist shot from the point that bounced down to the goal and slipped past Tigers goalie Drew O'Connell at the 2:41 mark to put UMass on the board.

At 14:53 of the second, the Minutemen's Michael Lecomte backhanded a rebound in for the tying goal.

The third 5-on-3 test for the Tigers' penalty-killing unit wasn't as successful as the first two as P.J. Felton scored a top-shelf goal from a steep angle to give UMass a 3-2 lead at 16:33 of the second.

But Chad Rau tied the game 14 seconds later with a short-handed top-shelf goal.

UMass regained the lead 48 seconds into the third with a rebound goal and Rau deadlocked the teams for the last time at the 7:09 mark of the third before Burto's game-winner in overtime.

Notre Dame (17-5-0) beat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (8-9-3) 3-1 in the consolation game.

The Irish's Erik Condra scored his second goal in as many games two minutes into the contest. Condra's linemate and the team's leading goal scorer, Ryan Thang, put in his own rebound midway through the first period to give Notre Dame the 2-0 lead.

Three and a half minutes later, RPI got on the board with a power play goal from Kurt Colling. It was Colling's first goal of the season.

After a scoreless second and a mostly scoreless third, Notre Dame's Evan Rankin put in a dramatic empty net goal with 30 seconds left in the game.

Rankin, skating with the puck, fell over two fallen RPI players around the left circle, got up and fell again as he shot the puck into the empty net.

Reporter Cristina Ledra can be reached at (813) 948-4203 or cledra@tampatrib.com.

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