Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Trinity forward Anthony Sabitsky scored with 1:19 left in overtime to lift the Bantams to a 5-4 overtime thriller win over the Norwich University men's ice hockey team on Sunday night at Kreitzberg Arena in the 2016 Northfield Savings Bank Holiday Tournament title game.
Sabitsky banked a shot off a NU defender's stick that bounced into the back of the net after Trinity was on a 2-on-1 rush in a 3-on-3 overtime session to clinch the victory for the defending NCAA Division III national champions.
Trinity (7-2-1) dashed Norwich's hopes of winning its own holiday tournament title for the third straight time in the 17th annual event.
Norwich was led offensively by junior forward William Pelletier (St. Jean Chrysostome, Quebec), who won his third straight NSB Holiday Tournament MVP award after scoring a goal and dishing out two assists on Sunday to bring his two-day total to nine points in his first two games back since the season opener.
Senior forward Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) chipped in with two goals, while sophomore defenseman Alec Brandrup (Rochester, Minn.) notched two assists to round out the Cadets' offensive leaders.
Norwich (9-5-0) took a 1-0 lead just 1:08 into the game with junior defenseman Brian Rowland (Waltham, Mass.) ripping a slap shot off the cross bar and into the back of the net to give the Cadets an early lead.
Trinity responded at the 9:54 mark of the second period with Ethan Holdaway scoring his fifth goal of the season on a rebound off an assist from Griffyn Martin who took the initial shot from the blue line.
Norwich regained the lead at the 13:10 mark of the opening frame with Niezgoda notching his first goal of the night by tucking a puck just inside the right post off a crossing pass from the left from Pelletier.
Trinity tied the game back up at the 16:20 mark of the first period with Ryan Pfeffer scoring his first goal of the season off an assist from Brandon Cole. Brandon Cole then gave the Bantams their first lead of the game on a goal with just four seconds left in the period off assists from Ryan Cole and Elie Vered.
The Cadets tied the game back up at the 4:43 mark of the second period with Pelletier winning a scrum in front of the net for a rebound and knocking it past Trinity starting goalie Nathaniel Heilbron to make it 3-3. Rowland picked up the primary assist after taking the initial shot from the point and Brandrup had the secondary assist.
Niezgoda gave Norwich the lead again late in the second period slapping a shot over the shoulder of Heilbron off assists from Brandrup and Pelletier to make it 4-3 Cadets heading into the second intermission.
Brandon Cole picked up his second goal of the game at the 5:24 mark of the third period off assists from T.J. Sherman and Vered to knot the game back up at 4-4 and set up Sabitsky's overtime heroics.
Trinity outshot Norwich 38-21. Ty Reichenbach (Billings, Mont.) had 33 saves for Norwich to fall to 3-3-0 on the year. Alex Morin came on to stop all 10 shots he faced to improve to 5-0-0 and pick up the victory for the Bantams.
Norwich returns to action on Friday, Jan. 8 when it hosts Plattsburgh State at 7 p.m. at Kreitzberg Arena in non-conference action. Plattsburgh won a thriller 6-5 in overtime in the PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut championship.
