From the beginning of the third period Saturday night, the officials appeared determined to let the Norwich University and Plattsburgh State men's hockey teams decide the outcome on the ice.
That is up until the 15:46 mark of overtime.
Chad Anderson's power-play goal in the extra session lifted the defending national champion Cadets to a controversial 3-2 victory in the NCAA Division III Tournament quarterfinals at the Stafford Ice Arena.
The win sends Norwich (22-5-3), which avenged two regular season losses to the Cardinals at the Stafford, into the Final Four being held in Minneapolis, Minn.
"That was a great hockey game," said Norwich head coach Mike McShane. "It was a classic game — up and down. I was impressed by the second effort on both teams.
"That's the best team we've played all year."
No penalties were called in the third period and none in the overtime until Kyle Kudroch was surprisingly sent off for interference in the neutral zone. That ended a span of 37:06 without a player being whistled for a penalty.
The Cardinals nearly killed it off.
But, with three seconds left in the man advantage, Kyle Thomas got the puck down low to a wide-open Anderson, who beat Josh Leis.
"It's a shame the game and our season ended that way," said an emotional Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery. "This is the worst I've felt as a coach.
"I feel bad for our 24 players. They gave everything they had and followed the game plan. I felt we dominated a lot of the game and I didn't know what to say to the team.
"I couldn't have asked for more from them."
The Cardinals (20-8-1) took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Dylan Clarke sent a pass from the side to Dan Sliasis on the far side of the net. Sliasis one-timed the pass into the net at the 17:27 mark.
But, with the Cadets on the power play early in the second, Pier-Olivier Cotnoir sent a wrister from between the face-off circle and blue line through some players and into the net to tie it just 29 seconds in.
Then, shortly after at 3:17, Cotnoir took a pass from behind the end line near the slot to give Norwich a 2-1 lead with the Cadets skating with an extra player.
The Cadets were lethal on the power play, going three-for-four in the contest.
"Norwich has great forwards and we knew they were better than we are on the power play," said Emery.
The Cardinals, however, drew even late in the second on Kyle Kudroch's power-play goal with 24 seconds remaining in the stanza. Ryan Corry sent in a shot and Kudroch got to the puck in close and tied the game.
Ironically, that was the last penalty whistled until Kudroch was sent to the box late in overtime.
"Our players were ready to play at the start and played well the entire game," said Emery. "Norwich has a lot of talent, but we have to focus on the team.
"And, I felt we played a great game as a team tonight."
The Cardinals outshot the Cadets in each of the first three periods by a 28-15 margin. Norwich, however, carried the play early in overtime before Plattsburgh State started to come on later in the stanza.
Plattsburgh State finished with a 31-21 shot advantage. Both goaltenders played very well as Parker Carroll made 28 saves for the Cadets and Leis 18 stops.
