The Hamilton College men's hockey team rallied to tie host Williams College 2-2 Sunday afternoon. With the tie, the Continentals clinch the fourth seed in the upcoming NESCAC Championship and will host a quarterfinal Saturday against fifth-seeded Middlebury at 4 p.m.

Box Score

The Continentals finish the regular season 13-7-4 and placed fourth in the NESCAC standings with a record of 8-6-4. Hamilton handed the Ephs, ranked fifth nationally by USCHO.com and sixth in the D3hockey.com poll, two of the six blemishes on their record (the Continentals beat visiting Williams 1-0 in December).

Hamilton will be hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2011. The winner of Saturday's game will advance to the semifinal round, to be hosted by the highest remaining seed the weekend of March 5-6.

The Continentals tied Sunday's game midway through the third period after the Ephs had held a one-goal lead for nearly 28 minutes.

Seamus O'Neill '17 scored his first goal of the season with 9:41 left in the third period. He received a pass from Richard Court '19 and sent a shot from the slot through the legs of Williams goaltender Michael Pinios. Court and T.J. Daigler '18 both picked up their third assist of the winter.

The teams traded first period goals, with the Continentals opening the scoring 8:24 in on a goal by their highest-scoring line. Pinios saved a shot by Neil Conway '18 but Brandon Willett '18 controlled the rebound, setting up a two-on-one advantage in the crease, then passed the puck to Robbie Murden '17 who swept a shot past Pinios for his team- and NESCAC-leading 16th goal.

Willett's assist was his 12th of the year. Conway picked up his 16th; he and Murden (16-16=32) are tied for the conference lead and are the NESCAC's top two scorers.

Six minutes later the hosts tied the score on a goal by Sam Gray. A wrap-around shot by Frankie Mork was stopped before Gray directed the puck into the net with 14:58 left.

Evan Buitenhuis '18 stopped 30 shots, including 16 in the final 25 minutes. He improved his save percentage to .944 (third nationally) and lowered his goals-against average to 1.74 (ninth).

Williams took its only lead early in the second, capitalizing on the only penalty called against Hamilton. Zander Masucci sent a wrist shot from the left point into the net for the power-play goal.

Pinios made 26 saves.

Despite the tie, Williams will be the top seed for the eight-team NESCAC Championship and will host eighth-seeded Tufts in Saturday's quarterfinal round.