HARTFORD, Conn. -- Junior Joe Tierney (Reading, Mass.) scored a short-handed goal at 7:16 of the third period to give the Trinity College Bantams a 3-3 overtime tie with the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies Saturday afternoon in an ECAC Men's East-NESCAC interleague game at Williams Rink.  The game was the regular season finale for both clubs.

            The tie extended the Huskies' current unbeaten string to three games (2-0-1), and they are 3-1-1 since snapping a long winless streak earlier this month.  The Huskies head into the first round of the ECAC Men's East tournament next weekend with a 7-12-5 overall record and finished with a 5-11-3 mark in league play.  The five ties are a single-season record for the Huskies.  The Bantams finish the regular season at 11-9-4 overall and 9-8-2 in league play.

            Southern Maine rallied from a 2-1 deficit to take a 3-2 lead in the second period on goals by junior Dan Rautenberg (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) and sophomore Dustin Rider (Farmington, Conn.) before Tierney scored the only goal of the third period.

            Tierney potted the equalizer, set up by senior Matthew Quigley (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and rookie Larry Bero (Foxboro, Mass.), in the final seconds of a five-minute major penalty that the Bantams successfully killed off.

            The teams traded goals in the first period.  Trinity grabbed a 1-0 lead on junior Paul Jaskot's (Methuen, Mass.) first goal of the season at 7:16.  Senior Mike Carpenter (Minot, Maine) tied the game for USM with his second marker of the year at 16:23 off assists from seniors Zach Joy (Dover, N.H.) and Jon Rutt (Scarborough, Maine).

            Rookie Will Gray (Wellesley, Mass.) put the Bantams back in front with his first collegiate goal at 2:37 of the middle period.  Rautenberg got the Huskies level at 4:39, set up by Joy and Rutt, and Rider gave the Huskies their only lead at 11:49.  Freshman Troy Thibodeau (Danvers, Mass.) and sophomore Tom Gosselin (Lewiston, Maine) earned the assists on the Rider goal.

            Freshman goalie Braely Torris (Eckville, Alberta) made 25 saves in the USM cage while senior Wesley Vesprini (Lexington, Mass.) stopped 31 shots at the opposite end.

            Southern Maine will be the sixth seed in the ECAC Men's East tournament that begins next Saturday and travel to third seeded University of Massachusetts Boston.  Trinity will be the seventh seed in the NESCAC championship tournament and travel to second-seeded Williams College