(Bensenville, Ill.)- The No. 15 SUNY Canton men's ice hockey team rebounded from an opening round loss to beat No. 16 Rutgers University 6-5 in overtime in a consolation game at The Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville, Ill. The Roos end their season at 20-12 overall.
Adam Fedor (Orleans, Ontario) scored his third overtime goal of the season and fifth game-winning tally of the year when he knocked in a power play goal with 4:26 left in the first overtime. John Payne (Port Moody, B.C.) and Adam Levy (Penfield, N.Y.) assisted on the goal.
It was Fedor's second goal of the game as the freshman also had an assist and finished the year as the team's leading scorer with 27 goals and 27 assists for 54 points.
SUNY Canton, who lost to No. 2 Penn State 7-3 in the opening round on Saturday, was making their first appearance in the national tournament. The Roos built a 4-1 lead after two periods but then watched Rutgers rally and force an extra session with three straight goals, the last coming with 6:32 left in regulation. The Roos are now 5-3 in overtime games this year.
Eric Cook (Cary, N.Y.) had put SUNY Canton on top 1-0 with his 21st goal of the year at the 5:42 mark of the opening period. Dan Cibelli (Liverpool, N.Y.) made it 2-0 four minutes later when he connected for his ninth goal of the year. Rutgers slashed the lead in half when John Beatrice scored with 9:08 left in the first period.
The Roos stretched their lead to 4-1 following goals from Darren Camp (Canton, N.Y.), and Fedor in the second period and then 5-2 after Camp and Jason Adams of Rutgers traded goals to start the third period. For Camp it was his seventh and eighth goals of the year.
Rutgers then pulled off the rally scoring three times, two on the power play, in a five-minute stretch to send the game into overtime.
Jimmy Merrow (Plainsboro, N.J.), who had 51 saves against Penn State, made 28 more against Rutgers and finishes his junior year with a 3.32 goals-against average and a .887 save percentage.
Payne finished with three assists and Levy and Cook each had two.
Eric Visnovski had 21 saves for Rutgers.