(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics)
When his team needed him most, Joe Robertson showed up (again). The attackman put in the overtime game-winner while falling down to push the Duke Blue Devils past the Loyola Greyhounds 10-9 and send them back to Championship Weekend for the third consecutive season.
Robertson’s game-winner, which marks his third of the season, came on Duke’s second possession of the overtime period. Tyler Carpenter caused a Loyola turnover and took it up the field himself to regain the ball for the Blue Devils.
Brennan O’Neill scored the overtime-forcing goal off a Michael Sowers feed on a power-play situation to put an end to a two-goal run from the Greyhounds which saw them take their first lead (9-8) since the first quarter. O’Neill’s goal to force overtime tied things up for the seventh time overall and fourth time in the second half alone.
Loyola used a two-goal run from Evan James in the third to tie things up at 7 and saw two straight from Dan Wigley and Kevin Lindley to put them ahead before O’Neill forced overtime.
O’Neill led the Blue Devils with four goals and an assist for five points while Michael Sowers (1G/3A) and Joe Robertson (3G/1A) each had four points.
Mike Adler anchored the Duke defense, which held Loyola scoreless for over 20 minutes from late in the first through the 9:43 mark in the third, with eight saves. LSM Tyler Carpenter ended the day with five ground balls and two caused turnovers while JT Giles-Harris (2GB/3CT) and Kenny Brower (2GB/2CT) headlined the effort at close.
Sam Shafer had another more than solid day in cage for the Greyhounds, making 17 saves (12 in the second half), while Evan James led the offensive effort with four goals and an assist for five points.
Maryland 14, Notre Dame 13 (OT)
39 seconds into the overtime period, Anthony DeMaio put in the game winner off a feed from Logan Wisnauskas to push Maryland past Notre Dame, 14-13, and send the Terps back to Championship Weekend for the eighth time since John Tillman took the reigns in College Park in 2011.
The game-winner put an end to a game that saw seven ties and both sides trade five-goal runs in the opening two quarters of play.
Pat Kavanagh’s lone goal late in the third and Will Yorke’s second of the day early in the fourth gave the Irish their biggest lead of the day at 12-9. However, as always, the Terrapins had an answer. Four straight from the 10:06 mark through the 6:52 mark in the fourth pushed Maryland ahead 13-12.
Wheaton Jackoboice’s fourth tally of the day is all the Irish would be able to get following the Maryland run, but it turned out to be the overtime-forcing goal. Each side had a chance to end it in the final minute of regulation, but nether were able to get anything to go. Notre Dame’s Arden Cohen forced the turnover on Jared Bernhardt and on the ensuing Irish possession, which came after two timeouts, Pat Kavanagh sent one wide in the final seconds of regulation for Notre Dame’s final shot of the game.
Bernhardt led Maryland with five goals on seven shots while Logan Wisnauskas had three goals and an assist. Logan McNaney made 10 saves to anchor the Maryland defense.
Notre Dame dominated the faceoff dot with Kyle Gallagher and Charles Leonard combining to go 20-for-30. Liam Entenmann made 16 saves in cage.
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