CASTLETON, Vt. – The Keene State College men's ice hockey team erased a two-goal deficit in the opening 4:55 of the third period, but Denys Arkhypenko scored with 32 seconds left in overtime as King's College (Pa.) posted a 4-3 win over the Owls in the opening game of the Terry Moran Invitational hosted by Vermont State University Castleton at the Spartan Arena on Friday evening.

KSC (2-5-1) scored just 54 seconds in when Marcus Chrisafideis tallied his seventh goal of the season and nursed that 1-0 lead through the opening period, but two goals in 26 seconds six minutes into the second period gave King's (1-6-0) the lead and flipped the script on the game.  The Monarchs added a power play goal with 3:09 to go in the period to make it 3-1, and despite seeing that lead vanish, posted their first win of the season.  After tying the game in the third, the Owls had a pair of power play chances and generated four shots, but Diego D'Alessandro made 10 stops overall in the final 20 minutes to send the game to overtime.

Keene State killed off a tripping minor to Sean Gray 27 seconds into the extra period, but the Monarchs pressed, with Kent Lee hitting the post with 1:25 to go.  Ethan Swanson made a pair of saves within six seconds in the final minute, including one on Arkhypenko, but the Monarchs junior was there to whack home a rebound of Shota Kaneko's shot from distance.

"We had some really bad habits in the second period," said KSC head coach Bobby Rodrigue.  "We had a solid start and a solid finish to the game.  Now we will try to get back on track tomorrow."

The Owls outshot the Monarchs 35-30, but fell to 0-5 when allowing four or more goals this season.  Ben Skelton got the start in the net for KSC, making 14 saves in the first two periods before Swanson stopped 12 in the final 24:28.

KSC's tying goal in the third period was the first in the career of Mike Collett.  Kyle Gonzalez notched his team-best ninth point of the season when he made it 3-2 just 12 seconds into the final period, spurring the Owls' comeback after a tough middle period.

Keene State will take on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (0-6) in the consolation game of the tournament tomorrow (Saturday, November 30) at 1:00 p.m.  Host Vermont State Castleton picked up their first win of the season, beating MCLA 3-1 in tonight's second contest.