Hamilton College's Jason Brochu '19 scored the opening goal and the overtime winner to help lift the Continentals past the Williams College Ephs 4-3 in a 2019 NESCAC Men's Hockey Championship quarterfinal on Saturday afternoon at Hamilton's Russell Sage Rink.

Hamilton (13-9-3 overall) entered the championship as the fourth seed, which the Continentals earned by defeating Williams 4-2 in the final game of the regular season last weekend. The fifth-seeded Ephs conclude their season with a 14-9-2 overall record.

The Continentals advance to the semifinals at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., next weekend. Hamilton will face off against the top-seeded Bantams on Saturday, March 2 at 4:30 p.m.

Just over nine minutes into the first sudden-victory overtime period, Sean Allen '21 gathered the puck behind Hamilton's net and fired a pass straight up the middle of the ice to Brochu in the neutral zone. Brochu split the defenders for a breakaway and blasted a shot that bounced off the inside of goaltender Michael Pinios' left leg and flipped across the goal line at 9:11. Brochu leads the Continentals with 11 goals and 22 points.

Brochu gave Hamilton a 1-0 lead with 1:23 left in the first period. Ian Nichols '19 broke the puck out of Hamilton's end and skated all the way up the right-side boards. Nichols crossed the blue line and dropped a pass back to Allen. Allen immediately returned the puck and Nichols found Brochu in the high slot. Brochu skated down to the left faceoff dot and clanged the puck off the back post and into the goal.

The Ephs evened the score 8:08 into the second stanza when Nick VanBelle scored on the power play. Roberto Cellini passed across the point to Jack McCool for a shot on net and VanBelle deflected the puck into the opposite corner of the goal.

Wyatt Glover then gave Williams a 2-1 lead heading into the third period. Niko Karamanis cleared the puck along the left-side boards to Glover skating through the neutral zone. Glover turned the corner around the Hamilton defender for a free shot on Anthony Tirabassi '20 (47 saves) and slipped the puck inside the right post with 4:30 left in the second.

Williams' Myles Cunningham headed to the penalty box just 1:06 into the third period and 36 seconds later Hamilton capitalized on its power-play opportunity. Joey Moore '22 passed across the point to Bennett Morrison '20 for a shot that was denied by Pinios (29 saves) but the rebound bounced out to Jon Beniers '21 who wasted no time finding the back of the net to tie the score with his fourth goal.

At 11:46 in the third, Moore returned the lead back to the Continentals. Moore won the faceoff to the right of Pinios, delivering the puck to Nick Ursitti '20. Ursitti evaded the defense and dished the puck back to Moore for a one-timer that found its way into the upper-left corner of the nylon for his second goal this season.

During the final minutes of the third Pinios headed towards the bench to give Williams an extra skater, but before he left the ice Marcus Mollica tied the score with 1:20 remaining. Tirabassi stopped the initial screened shot from the left point but the rebound bounced to Mollica and he hammered the puck into the net.

-- Recap by Julia Booth '19