BYU NewsNet - Overtime Game Ends in Tie for Cougars, Wolverines

She smacked the glass as she jumped up and down. In the middle of a 360 she screamed at the top of her lungs, "That is my husband. That is my husband." She grabbed the man's shirt standing behind her, leaving her handprints in his white polo.

James Burkart, her husband, had just put the Cougars up 3-0, and she was going to make sure that everyone knew it. However, Burkart's wife's excitement soon faded.

UVSC had four unanswered goals to take its first lead in the third period, but BYU tied it 4-4 with 4:42 left in the third; the game ended in a 4-4 overtime tie.

"We knew we were in a dog fight in the third period," Burkart said. "Every shift and every play counted, and we were able to come away with the tying goal in the third."

The Cougars came out with the momentum advantage after taking a 1-0 lead in the first period. The north side of the arena erupted as a wave of blue stood to congratulate the Cougars on their first goal of the night. The north side, spotted with green and white, quickly quieted.

"We came out a little flat, but we were able to weather the early storm where they were getting a lot of shots off," Burkart said. "Shapiro [the goalie] played really well in the first period."

The emotion of an instate rival began to show during the second period. Both teams began to check and taunt, and fans competed to make their team's name heard. Cougar fans had the first two reasons to cheer when Brandon Holmes and Burkart scored within a minute of each other to put BYU up 3-0 with 10:17 left in the second. The 3-0 lead vanished quickly when UVSC scored three goals between 4:26 and 2:43 in the second.

"We let up and did not play our style of game in the end of the second, as well as the third period, as we did in the first two," Derek Battisti said. "We went into a shell and thought that we had in the bag, but UVSC has a lot of talented kids and they took advantage of our mistakes."

UVSC came out of the locker room with momentum and crowd support on their side. With 12:46 left on the clock the Wolverines scored their fourth unanswered goal and took a 4-3 lead. Frustration and fatigue were setting in for the Cougars when Beau Adams tied the score with 4:42 left in regulation. Time ran out with the Cougars and Wolverines deadlocked at four. A five-minute overtime period was not enough for either team to take a lead and the game ended in a 4-4- tie.

"It was an awesome game," Nate Herrington said. "We stopped doing our systems and then we stopped following our game plan. We are unhappy with the tie, and thought that we should have won that one."

The Cougars and Wolverines will have to wait until Feb. 29 when they will play their last game of the season against each other and battle for the Utah County hockey crown.