Amherst, Mass.- Sophomore forward Payson Sword (Princeton, N.J.) scored the game-winning goal 3:49 into an NCAA Division III-record fourth overtime on a rebound during a breakaway to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 2-1 win over the Middlebury College Panthers in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Women's Ice Hockey Championship Semifinals at Amherst College's Orr Rink this afternoon.  Trinity will play the host Amherst Lord Jeffs, who edged Bowdoin, 3-2, in overtime in today's earlier semifinal, in the NESCAC Championship Finals tomorrow at Amherst at 2 p.m.  The winner of tomorrow's final earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament,while the loser has a solid chance to earn an at-large invitation when the field is announced Monday morning.  Trinity, ranked No.4 in the East and No. 5 in the nation, improves its record to 21-3-2 with its seventh win in a row, while Middlebury, ranked No. 6 in the East and No. 10 nationally, ends its season at 16-7-3 with its first loss in three games.  The game was the longest in the history of NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey, lasting 123:49, breaking the previous record of 101:54 set in the 2007 NESCAC Championship Finals when Amherst defeated Middlebury, 2-1, in three overtimes.  

Middlebury put several shots on net early, resulting in several rebound opportunities including a stuff-in by junior defender Heidi Woodworth (Princeton,N.J.) 3:47 into the contest for the first goal of the game.  Panther junior Anna McNally (St.Paul, Minn.) and senior forward Ashley Bairos (Van Nuys, Calif.) assisted on the play.  The Trinity offense got going late in the first frame, but Panther senior tri-captain Lani Wright (Reading, Mass.) made two tough saves in the final five minutes to keep the Bantams off the board.  In the second period, Trinity junior blueliner Laura Komarek (Plymouth,Minn.) snuck a rebound shot past Wright that hit the right post and bounced down just in front of the red line before being knocked away.  After a near miss by the Middlebury offense and a successful penalty kill by Wright and the Panther defense, Trinity senior forward Britney McKenna (Rye, N.H.) tied the game at 1-1 12:31 into freshman defender Hillary McNamara (Milton, Mass.).  McNally almost gave the lead back to Middlebury on a breakaway late in the second, but was stopped on a glove save by Iwachiw, her 12th of the second stanza.  Sword finally punched in the clincher on assists by forwards Sarah Kohn (Winchester, MAss.) and Hannah Harvey (Silverthorne, Colo.) during a mad scramble in front of the Middlebury net, after Iwachiw had stopped five Middlebury shots, including one by freshman forward Molly Downey (East Sandwich, Mass.) on a one-on-one chance, in the opening minutes of the fourth extra session.   

The defenses controlled play and both teams played penalty-free in the third period and for the majority of overtime, although McNally broke through the Bantam defenders with the puck on the left wing before firing a shot just wide of the right post with 8:30 left on the clock.  Both teams killed off penalties in the latter half of the first extra session.  Trinity withstood another short-handed situation early in the second overtime, and both goalies continued to impress despite each nearing their 100th minute beween the pipes.  Wright got caught behind her net but recovered in time to save a shot by Bantam sophomore forward Payson Sword (Princeton, N.J.) with seven minutes remaining before fourth intermission, and Iwachiw stopped Panther sophomore forward Grace Waters (Snyder, N.Y.) and McNally on back-to-back two-on-one chances in the final five minutes.  Iwachiw added five saves in the first minute of the third overtime, while Wright stopped a one-on-one wrist shot from the left wing by Bantam junior tri-captain forward Kim Weiss (Potomac,Md.) and the ensuing attempt by sophomore forward Celia Colman-McGaw (Manchester, Conn.) who came rushing in by herself for the rebound seven minutes in.  McKenna drew a tripping penalty after breaking ahead of the Panther defense with the puck to give Trinity a power-play opportunity at 12:45 of the third overtime,and Sword forced another trip with a nice move past a Middlebury defender to make it a 5x3 situation for 35 seconds and extend the power-play but Wright continued to hold the Bantams at bay.  Trinity killed off a late penalty in the third overtime, although Waters nearly ended it on the power play when she hit the left post with an open shot from close.  

After the Panthers held a 34-25 shot advantage through regulation, Trinity held a 9-to-4 edge in the first overtime, Middlebury outshot Trinity, 13-4, in the second, and Trinity rallied to put 15 shots on net to just five for Middlebury in the third overtime.  Iwachiw finished with 61 saves, while Wright stopped 45 shots for Middlebury.  Trinity will make its first-ever appearance in the NESCAC Championship Finals tomorrow, earning the trip with its second win against Middlebury this season after posting an 0-18-2 mark against the Panthers over the first 20 meetings between the two teams.

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