DULUTH, Minn. -- The Lawrence University men's hockey team forced overtime Sunday night at Mars Lakeview Arena, but the College of St. Scholastica pulled out a 5-4 victory to salvage a split of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association weekend series.
    Under the NCHA's new overtime rules, the teams went 3-on-3 for the five-minute overtime, and Lawrence won the opening faceoff. The Vikings pushed into the St. Scholastica zone and then pulled back. The Saints forced a turnover near the Lawrence blue line, and Sam Fuss scored just 15 seconds into the overtime to end it.
    Lawrence nearly won the game in regulation, but what would have been the game-winning goal came just a few tenths of a second after the horn sounded to end the third period. With 6.8 seconds remaining and a faceoff set to occur to the left of Lawrence goaltender Alex Mosquera, the Saints pulled their goaltender in favor of an extra attacker.
    The Saints won the draw, but the Vikings quickly took the puck back, and Zach Lodes fired a shot at the empty net. The shot found the back of the net, but the horn sounded just before the puck reached the goal line and it was waived off by the officials.
    Lawrence (1-1-0, 1-1-0 NCHA) took an early 2-0 lead before St. Scholastica (2-5-0, 1-3-0) rallied. After St. Scholastica's Daniel Sukhonos was sent off for roughing, the Vikings converted on the power play with Matt Meininger's goal at the 7:14 mark. The Vikings made it 2-0 when Zach Olen scored unassisted at the 13:49 mark.
    The Saints got a pair of power-play goals in the final 3:56 of the first to tie the game at 2-2 after one period. St. Scholastica went 2-for-6 on the power play, and Lawrence was 1-for-8.
    Lawrence grabbed the lead back when Charles Stewart scored his first goal of the season off a pass from Curtis Weyerhaeuser with 3:22 left in the second period. The Saints struck back just 25 seconds later on Carson Rose's goal to tie the game at 3-3.
    St. Scholastica took a 4-3 lead with a goal 1:52 into the third period, but Lawrence got the equalizer with 5:28 left in regulation. Oliver DeCroock scored off a pass from Zach Lodes to knot the game at 4-4 and force the overtime.
    Mosquera finished with 19 saves for the Vikings, and Jack Bostedt had 29 saves for the Saints.