HERSHEY, Pa. – The Bryn Athyn College men's ice hockey team suffered a 4-3 loss to Lebanon Valley College on a Brent Johnson goal at the 2:31 mark of overtime Friday night in Hersheypark Arena.
Travis Acker, who assisted on three of the four goals, started the eventual game-winning sequence for the Dutchmen (11-9-2) by keeping the puck in the offensive zone at the left point and then throwing the puck down to the goal line for Johnson. Johnson skated around a Lion (8-12-1) defender and ended up in the slot one-on-one with goaltender McKenzie Chalmers. He lifted a backhand over the diving Chalmers for the goal.
Bryn Athyn needed just 4:37 to take a 1-0 first-period lead on Brycon Johnson's team-leading seventh goal of the season, which came on the Lions' first power play of the night. Johnson skated in from the right point and beat Dutchmen netminder Chase Wilson with a wrist shot through traffic on the glove side.
The Dutchmen answered right back with a Bryan Hovanec goal on a delayed penalty 1:38 after the Lions took the lead to level the score. Acker fired a shot on net that was stopped by Chalmers. The rebound fell right to Hovanec who push the puck into an open net.
Lebanon Valley cashed in on a second-period 5-on-3 power play to pull in front 2-1. After working the puck around the period, Nick Skerlick shot the puck from the blue line and was stopped by Chalmers. Chalmers left in a rebound in the slot and Sneath found it for the go-ahead goal at 6:47.
Tanner Congdon recorded the Lions' second power-play goal at 9:49 of the second as he one-timed a Nikita Smirnov pass into an open net to knot the game up at two. It was Congdon's sixth goal of the year.
Johnson got into the goal column for the first time at the 4:10 mark of the third period to put Lebanon Valley up 3-2. The goal came on a 2-on-1 with Johnson receiving a pass from Jared Karas.
The Lions' Connor Devereux sent the game to overtime with his first collegiate goal 37 second past the midway point of the third. Devereux attempted a backhand pass the ricocheted off of Wilson and into the net.
Chalmers finished the game with 25 saves for the Lions, while Wilson stopped 22 shots.
Bryn Athyn was 2-for-4 on the power play. Lebanon Valley had one goal on eight power-play opportunities.
The Lions close out their first NCAA season with a trip to Pittsburgh to face Chatham on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 7:20 p.m.