GENESEO, NY - On Friday, the Chatham Cougars (5-10-1) traveled to Geneseo, NY to take on the No. 3 nationally ranked SUNY Geneseo Knights (13-2-1). The Cougars got up on the Knights early in the first period and despite the Knights fighting back the Cougars never trailed after the end of the first period and won 7-6 in overtime.

In the first period, the Cougars struck first. Less than four minutes into the game Milan Cermak scored his first goal of the game assisted by Evan Mitchell. The Knights answered back when they scored on the power play with six-and-a-half minutes left in the first period. The Knights then scored less than 15 seconds later to take a 2-1 lead. Chatham then scored two goals in the final minute-and-a-half to take a 3-2 lead into the first break. Tyler Samodral scored the first on the assist from Nick Cyprian. The final goal of the period was scored by Michael Roby assisted by Kyle Contessa and Bekk McClaine.

In the second period the Knights re-tied the game five-and-a-half minutes into the period. The Cougars answered back when Nick Cyprian scored on the power play 45 seconds later. He was assisted by Tyler Samodral. The Knights continued the back and forth game tying the game at four halfway through the second period. The Cougars once again ended the period on a two goal run to this time take a 6-4 lead into the final intermission. The first of the two was scored by True Crowe assisted by Carson Granier and Dylan Young. Then it was Bekk McClaine scoring on the assists from Tyler Samodral and Nick Cyprian.

In the third period the Knights once again battled back scoring five-and-a-half minutes into the period to cut the Cougar lead to one. The Cougars tried to hold on to the lead but ultimately the Knights were able to score the game tying goal with four minutes left in regulation. Both teams had looks at the net in the final minutes but neither team could answer. That sent the game to overtime tied at 6.

In overtime both teams took looks at the net and could not come up with the winning goal. That was until Michael Roby intercepted a pass at the red line and sent it ahead to Nick Cyprian who put away the one timer to give the Cougars the 7-6 road upset.

The Cougars were led offensively by Cyprian who had two goals and two assists and Samodral who had one goal and two assists. Defensively Zack Conner, Brendan Pomerantz and Crowe all led the Cougars with three blocks a piece. Geno Pichora was between the pipes for the Cougars and made a number of high difficulty saves on his way to 37 saves and an .860 save percentage.

The Cougars will be back in action on Saturday January 25th when they play game two of the weekend set at SUNY Geneseo with a scheduled puck drop of 4 PM in Geneseo, N.Y.