RUTLAND, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton men's hockey team tied with New England Hockey Conference opponent UMass Boston 5-5 Friday evening. The Beacons won the shootout 2-1 after a scoreless overtime period.

The Spartans rallied behind a career best four-point performance from Sophomore Aiden Robson (1G, 3A). Josh Ward took the between the pipes for Castleton. He made 35 saves, including multiple acrobatic and cross-crease saves that were able to keep the Spartans alive and give the team the momentum booster they needed throughout the game. 

 Castleton kicked off Friday's contest with Robson and Cam Reid setting up Chance Heaphy for a powerplay goal to give the Spartans the first goal of the game. 

Shortly after, UMass Boston's Jack Ford scored on their powerplay opportunity to bring the score back to level.

The Beacons extended their lead with Chris Repmann scoring his first goal halfway through the first period to give Boston a 2-1 lead. Repmann scored a second time in the second period to to advance Boston's lead 3-1.

Boston continued to control the game and found a fourth goal with the help of Michael Krupinski, who assisted on each of the Beacons' first four goals and set up Ford for his second of the game to bring the score to 4-1.

The Spartans answered with Luke Chakrabarti cycling around the wing and dishing the puck up top to Robson. With 16 seconds left in the period, Robson blasted one toward the net and was successful in finding his target. This gave Castleton a much-needed goal as they headed into the locker room down by two.

As the final period began, the Beacons lit the lamp for the fifth time in the game to give themselves a three-goal lead once more. 

Castleton didn't let the deficit affect their gameplay, as the Spartans stayed focused on getting back into the game. They started to rally after Jackson Kobelka cycled the puck to Robson around the boards, where he found an open Zach Trempner in front of the net who was able to slot the puck past the goalie to cut into Boston's lead 5-3.

Gaining the momentum on their side, Josef Vyvial scored Castleton's fourth goal of the game and trailed only by one to Boston. 

With the final seconds dwindling, Heaphy and Stefura connected with Logan Dapprich to tie the game up with 13 seconds remaining in regulation.

The two sides went scoreless in overtime, but UMass Boston would claim the shootout victory over Castleton 2-1.

The two sides will face off tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Spartan Arena.