MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Saint Anselm College men's hockey team overcame a three-goal deficit in the third period and Brendon Kerrigan scored the lone goal of the shootout to break a 3-3 tie as the Hawks got by host Middlebury in the opener of the Holiday Classic on Friday afternoon at Kenyon Arena.

Box Score

Middlebury (0-8-1) scored once in each of the first two periods and again early in the third to open up a 3-0 lead. However, Saint Anselm (5-5-1) fought back with third-period goals from Nick Gorski, Nick Leonard and Vin D'Amato to send the game to overtime. After two scoreless overtime sessions, Kerrigan's shootout goal sent the Hawks to the tournament's championship game.

Saint Anselm will face the winner of Friday's second game between SUNY Canton and Manhattanville at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31.

Vincent Gisonti scored unassisted at 5:57 of the first period and on a 5-on-3 power play just 1:17 into the second to help the Panthers to a 2-0 lead after two periods. Middlebury stretched its lead to 3-0 a little over three minutes into the third on a Greg Conrad goal.

Trailing by three, Saint Anselm started its comeback at 8:33 of the third when Gorski registered his first-career goal to get the Hawks on the board. Kerrigan circled with the puck behind the net and found Gorski in front for Kerrigan's eighth assist of the season.

Middlebury continued to lead by two with less than five minutes left until Lawrence Taylor IV found Leonard with a stretch pass from deep in the Hawks' end and Leonard finished off the breakaway by firing the puck into the upper-right corner with 4:12 remaining. Justin Longo also picked up an assist on the goal that brought Saint Anselm within a goal at 3-2.

The Hawks pulled even with 2:25 to go in regulation as D'Amato netted his fourth of the season, tipping home a Peter Sikalis shot from the point. Jeremy Carignan matched Kerrigan for the team lead with his eighth helper of the season on the tying goal.

The goal came 11 seconds after the Panthers took a five-minute major penalty so the Hawks continued on the power play after D'Amato's equalizer. Saint Anselm outshot Middlebury 17-6 in the third period but the teams headed to overtime tied at 3-3.

Leonard was inches away from ending the game a little over a minute into the first overtime, as he rung a shot off the post with the Hawks still on a 4-on-3 power play. The effort was the third time the Hawks hit the post in the game.

Shots in the first overtime were 10-0 in favor of Saint Anselm but the teams went to an additional 3-on-3 overtime sessionfor advancement purposes. Middlebury nearly won it 30 seconds into the second extra session but hit the post, and the game went to a best-of-three shootout to decide a winner.

Goaltenders Stephen Klein and Shane Joyce made saves to deny Leonard and Mitchell Allen, respectively, in the first round of the shootout. Kerrigan was next and his shot was initially saved by Klein but managed to trickle over the line. Joyce then denied Mark Lyman to send the Hawks to the championship game.

The final shot count for the game was 46-22 in favor of Saint Anselm, which outshot Middlebury 40-13 after the first period. Klein made 43 saves for the Panthers, while Joyce had 19 for the Hawks.