Williamstown, Mass. – In what was the first ever meeting between the Gustavus and Williams men’s hockey teams, the Gusties came away with a 4-2 victory to cap off their Bay State tour and snap a five-game winless-streak. After Williams used a pair of third period goals to tie the game at 2-2, Gustavus answered with the game-winner from Tyler Lapic (New Prague, Minn.) before sealing the win with an empty-netter. Gustavus returns to Minnesota with an overall record of 4-5-1, while the Ephs drop to 2-2-0.
Ryan Johnson (Blaine, Minn.) scored the game’s opening goal to put Gustavus up 1-0 at the 11:30 mark of the first period. Darren Lapic (New Prague, Minn.) and Alex Gallen (Hingham, Mass.) assisted on the go-ahead goal.
Gustavus kept the pressure on at the 6:40 mark of the second period when Andy Pearson (Burnsville, Minn.) buried a feed from Dane Erickson (Woodbury, Minn.) to extend the lead to 2-0. The goal was Pearson’s first of the season as he had missed the four previous games due to a lower body injury.
The Ephs began to mount their comeback early in the third period. Evan Dugdale scored at the 1:28 mark to cut the lead to 2-1, and Eric Rubino tied the game at 2-2 with the equalizer at the 8:55 mark.
With less than six minutes remaining in the contest, Tyler Lapic scored his second goal of the weekend to give Gustavus a 3-2 lead. Johnson and Gallen both assisted on Lapic’s game-winner for their second point of the game.
Williams pulled the goalie late in an attempt to score the game-tying goal. The Gusties locked down on the defensive end and Jack Walsh (Mahtomedi, Minn.) added an empty-netter to bring the game to a final at 4-2.
By the end of a back-and-forth contest, Gustavus had a slight advantage in shots at 31-29.
Patrick Sullivan (Kelowna, B.C.) earned his second win of the season after making a total of 27 saves. His counterpart Sean Dougherty suffered the loss after allowing three goals and making 27 saves.
The Gustavus men’s hockey team will head back into the MIAC next weekend when it takes on Augsburg in an away/home series.