PISCATAWAY, NJ – Rutgers'
Haydn Sommer grabbed the rebound on the 19
th save of the day for Johns Hopkins goalie
Oran Gelinas out of the air and shoveled home the game-winning goal with 2:38 remaining in the second overtime as the Scarlet Knights topped the Blue Jays, 9-8, in double overtime Sunday afternoon. The win drops the Blue Jays to 6-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten, while the Scarlet Knights improve to 8-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten.
Johns Hopkins had a golden chance to win the game off the opening faceoff of the second overtime as a
Luke Martin ground ball sprung a fastbreak, but the Blue Jays turned it over in transition and Rutgers went the other way. Gelinas, who had three saves in the first overtime, was equal to a
Colin Kelly offering from the wing, but couldn't control the rebound and Sommer grabbed it out of the air and popped inside the far post for the game-winner.
After spotting the Scarlet Knights an early two-goal lead, the Blue Jays used a three-goal run that bridged the first and second quarters to grab a 3-2 lead. A
Joe Hobot goal just eight seconds after a
Colin Kurdyla strike for Rutgers jump-started the three-goal spurt, which included an extra-man goal from
Brooks English and a
Jimmy Ayers goal off a quick feed to the crease from
Sean Crogan.
Kelly would answer the Ayers goal, but
Charlie Iler got to the crease off a restart and
Carmelo Pace added the first goal of his career in transition to give the Blue Jays a 5-3 lead at the break.
The two-goal lead was the first of three the Blue Jays would enjoy in the game, but Rutgers answered each time and never let the two-goal lead swell to three.
The last of the two-goal cushions came late in the third quarter when
Hunter Chauvette worked to the middle of the field, got his hands free and scored from 12 yards to give the Blue Jays an 8-6 lead with 1:47 on the third-quarter clock.
That lead would hold until the final five minutes of regulation as both goalies were strong in the final 15 minutes.
The best chance for any of the two-goal Blue Jay cushions to grow came just under three minutes into the fourth quarter when Scarlet Knight goalie
Cardin Stoller robbed
Matt Collison on the doorstep for one of his three, fourth-quarter stops.
For his part, Gelinas turned away seven Rutgers shots in the fourth, but after the Blue Jays killed off a two-minute non-releasable penalty midway through the period,
Collin Zeller made it an 8-7 game with 4:36 on the clock to end a long Scarlet Knight possession.
Still, it appeared the Blue Jays were in a good position when Gelinas was equal to a Kasey Mongillo offering with 44 seconds left and successfully cleared, but a turnover with 12 seconds left gave the Scarlet Knights a chance and Mongillo scored from 15 yards out with one-tenth of a second remaining to send the game to overtime.
The Blue Jays had a golden chance to win in the first overtime, but a runner from English sailed just wide of the far post and Sommer's opportunistic goal 1:22 into the second extra session ended things.
Johns Hopkins Notes of Interest
• The 19 saves for Gelinas are the second-best total of his career.
• English was the only multi-goal scorer on the day for the Blue Jays as he scored twice. Ayers (1g, 1a) and Crogan (1g, 1a) also had multi-point games for Johns Hopkins.
• Today's game was the 20
th one-goal game for Johns Hopkins under head coach Peter
Milliman, including the 17
th since the start of the 2023 season.
• This was the 13
th Johns Hopkins game since 1980 to go to multiple overtime periods.
Rutgers Notes of Interest
• Kurdyla (3) and Mongillo (2) were the only two multi-goal scorers for Rutgers.
• Stoller finished with nine saves, six of which came in the third and fourth quarters combined.
• Rutgers outshot the Blue Jays 53-40.
Up Next
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, April 4 when the Blue Jays welcome Penn State to Homewood Field (12 pm).
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