Dominic Toninato's days at AMSOIL Arena are numbered, so the University of Minnesota Duluth senior center is intent on making the most of them.
Toninato took a centering feed from senior left winger
Alex Iafallo and buried a shot 7:24 into sudden death for his first collegiate overtime goal, lifting UMD to a 5-4 triumph over Miami University Friday night. That gave No. 3 Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three National Collegiate Hockey Conference quarterfinal playoff series with the RedHawks, who are now winless in their last nine games overall and are 0-7-2 in their last nine confrontations with UMD.
"It's been the story all year, there is no quit in these guys" said Toninato. "The heart and resiliency and everything. Our guys stay positive and we just keep playing our game, working hard."
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Freshman left winger
Riley Tufte scored a pair of goals, including the equalizer with 7:41 to go in the third period that forced overtime. Sophomore right winger
Parker Mackay and Iafallo (his 16th of the season) accounted for UMD's two other scores. Mackay gave UMD its only lead during regulation -- a lead that lasted just 29 seconds -- when he picked off a Miami clearing pass and wristed the puck past Miami goaltender Ryan Larkin from between the faceoff circles at 5:21 of the first period.
Larkin was injured early in the second period (after making seven saves on eight shots) with the game tied at 1-1 and his replacement, Chase Munroe, wound up with 29 stops the rest of the way. Sixteen of those came in the third period -- when UMD outshot the visitors 18-7 -- and another eight were registered in overtime. UMD's
Hunter Miska finished with 18 saves while improving to 21-4-5 on the year.
"Our guys just stayed with it," said UMD coach
Scott Sandelin. "These are the games this time of year you have to stay with the game. I told them after the third period, 'Hey, you battled back just like you've done. Now it's our turn to get the next one.' And we went and did that."
UMD (22-6-7 overall) was 0-for-4 on the power play while Miami (9-19-7) went 0-for-3.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday night at 7:37 p.m.
