BOSTON—Second-seeded Babson College goaltender Jamie Murray (Scituate, Mass.) made a season-high 42 saves, but UMass-Boston sophomore Colin Larkin (Waterford, Mich.) scored 12:51 into overtime to give the top-seeded Beacons a 3-2 victory in the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) Tournament championship game on Saturday night at the Beacons Ice Arena.

The victory gave No. 8 USCHO.com/No. 7 D3hockey.com UMass-Boston (21-4-3) its first conference title and an automatic bid to the Division III Tournament. No. 7 USCHO.com/No. 8 D3hockey.com Babson (19-6-3), which was making its fourth straight league title game and its eighth in the last 10 years, now must wait until Sunday night to see if it receives one of three at-large berths to the championship.

Sophomores Ryan Gouveia (Dartmouth, Mass.) and Bobby Hall (Westwood, Mass.) both scored for the Beavers, while senior Mike Vollmin (Wilmington, N.C.), junior Bill Seligman (Toronto, Ontario) and first-year Matt Brazel (Hingham, Mass.) each contributed an assist.

Seniors Andrew Crawford (Medford, Mass.) and Alex Demchuk (Calgary, Alberta) both scored in regulation for the Beacons.

In a first period that featured just 13 combined shots, the Green and White jumped on top on Gouveia's second career playoff goal at the 17:35 mark. UMass-Boston senior netminder Billy Faust (Alta Loma, Calif.) made an initial stop on Vollmin's blast from just inside the blue line, but the rebound popped out to the high slot for Gouveia, who ripped it past Faust for a 1-0 advantage.

The Beacons killed off a power play late in the first and the Beavers held the hosts to just one shot on their first power play early in the second. UMass-Boston pulled even at 9:40 of the second though, as Crawford held in a potential Babson clearing attempt along the left boards and fired a shot from the blue line that found its way through traffic and past Murray for his second goal of the year.

The Green and White wasted little time responding though, as Hall notched his second goal of the winter and first playoff tally of his career just 54 seconds later. Brazel took a centering pass from Seligman on a 3-on-2 and put a shot on net that trickled through Faust and was loose in the crease before Hall tipped it into the open net for a 2-1 edge.

Murray made 13 of his 15 second-period saves over the final eight minutes of the frame, and six more early in the third before Beacons pulled even on Demchuk's third goal of the year. First-year David McGregor (Azusa, Calif.) had his shot blocked into the air, and Demchuk, with his back to the goal slapped the puck out of mid-air and past Murray for the unlikely tally. UMass-Boston killed off a late hooking penalty and the goaltenders combined to make 23 saves in the frame, 14 of them by Murray, to send the contest to overtime.

The netminders were both superb in a fast-paced extra session that featured plenty of scoring chances on both ends. Murray went post-to-post to deny UMass-Boston senior Matt Lemire (Townsend, Mass.) just under seven minutes in, and then made a sprawling save on first-year Drew Gannon (Plano, Texas) at the top of the paint at the 11:11 mark. Larkin's game winner came less than two minutes later though, as he stuffed home the rebound of a slap shot from the right point by junior Tyler Bishop (Ramsey, N.J.).

Faust finished the night with 33 saves for UMass-Boston, which held a 45-35 edge in shots.

The Green and White went 0-for-2 on the power play, while the Beacons were unable to score on their only man-advantage opportunity.

GAME NOTES
• Babson, which had knocked UMass-Boston out of the conference playoffs in each of the last three years, had won four straight against the Beacons in the postseason prior to Saturday's loss.
• The loss was the first of the year for the Beavers when scoring first and when leading after the first period.
• Babson is now 0-1-3 in overtime this season and 1-4-6 in OT over the last two years.
• Five of the Beavers' six losses this season have come when scoring two goals or less.