BURLINGTON, Vt. – Liam Limoges scored a behind the back game-winner as time expired Saturday afternoon as the Catamounts defeated No. 19 Stony Brook 14-13 to clinch their first-ever America East regular season title. The Catamounts third win of the season over a ranked opponent came on Senior Day presented by the UVM Alumni Association.
 
RELATED LINKS
Box Score (pdf.)
CatamounTV: Highlights | Postgame
Photo Gallery
Senior Day Ceremony Photos

COACH'S QUOTE
"This regular season championship means the world to me because I know it means the world to our guys," Chris Feifs said. "They've worked really hard to get to this point, there's been a lot of people who have supported us along the way, and believed in us and stuck with us through tough times and believed that this program could be a nationally respected program. To achieve that milestone is certainly one that I don't take for granted and I know our guys are going to be really thrilled as well. We're going to enjoy today, turn the page tomorrow and get back to work."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Catamounts set the tone early scoring the first goal of the game 27 seconds in. David Closterman scored his first of the contest to give UVM the early edge. Thomas McConvey's 28th goal of the season and a Sal Iaria tally 56 seconds later made it a 3-0 lead for UVM.
• The Seawolves responded with the next three goals of the contest in just 2:09 of game action. Matt Anderson's 20th goal of the season tied the game with 4:28 left in the first quarter.
• UVM closed the opening 15 with two quick goals. Michael McCormack scored his 27th of the year with 1:31 left in the quarter and Closterman added his second of the afternoon with just eight seconds left on the clock to reestablish the Catamounts lead.
• Closterman completed his hat trick 1:59 into the second quarter to push UVM's lead back to three. Down again Stony Brook came right back as Tom Haun scored two goals over a six-minute stretch as the Seawolves went on a 4-1 run to tie the game at seven with 3:38 to go in the half.
• First year Griffin Fenech scored his ninth goal of the season with 2:16 left in the half to give UVM an 8-7 edge at the break.
• The third quarter was Stony Brook's best of the game. Dylan Pallonetti scored two goals in the frame as the Seawolves took their first lead of the game with a 4-1 run. Stony Brook took an 11-9 lead to the fourth.
• After Limoges and Stony Brook's Connor Grippe exchanged goals early in the frame Closterman scored back-to-back goals 1:38 apart to tie the game at 12 with 8:40 left in regulation.
• McConvey reestablished the UVM lead with 4:11 left in regulation. With the shot clock winding down McConvey took a feed from Closterman and blew a shot top-corner past Stony Brook's Anthony Palma.
• The Seawolves were able to equalize with 8.5 seconds left in regulation. The Seawolves restarted play with 13.5 seconds behind the net and Haun found Chris Pickel cutting toward the net, Pickel fired a bouncer that just beat UVM's Ryan Cornell.
• Tommy Burke won the ensuing draw and quickly got to work. Burke passed off to Spencer Decker who found Closterman down low. Closterman cut to the net and fired a diving pass to Limoges. Limoges took possession in front with just .4 seconds left in regulation and whipped a behind the back shot to seal the win.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• This afternoon was Vermont's first-ever regular season win against the Seawolves.
• David Closterman had nine points this afternoon, only six Catamounts have ever registered 10 or more points in a game.
• In a battle of the top-two faceoff men in the conference Tommy Burke was 22 of 29 at the faceoff x for the Catamounts. He also collected a game-high 12 ground balls.

WHO'S NEXT
The Catamounts will face the Seawolves in the America East semifinals for the fifth time in program history Thursday evening at 4 p.m. As the two-seed Vermont will be the home team in Thursday's game. It will be the first time in the postseason history between the clubs that UVM is the higher seed.
 
The top seed and championship host UMBC will face the four-seed UAlbany at 1 p.m. on Thursday. The game will also be broadcast on AmericaEast.TV. Saturday's championship game is scheduled for 10 a.m. and will air nationally on ESPNU.