MIDDLEBURY, VT. -- Avery Flynn scored the game-winner 7:11 into the first overtime session Saturday, lifting the Amherst College women's hockey team to a 2-1 win over Colby at the Chip Keynon Arena on the campus of Middlebury College. 

The Mammoths improved to 14-8-2 overall and are now 9-1-2 in their last 12 games. Amherst will take on No. 1 and undefeated Middlebury in the championship game of the NESCAC Tournament Sunday at 2 p.m. in Middlebury.  Amherst is the defending NESCAC Champion. 

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

*  After a scoreless first period in which Colby outshot Amherst, 6-3, the Mammoths got on the board first with 3:56 left in the second. Alyssa Xu slid the puck back to Flynn and the left point and Flynn's shot found its way on goal, forcing Mule netminder Nia Prunster to made a pad save. The rebound slid its way though a scrum in the slot ot Anna Baxter, who put enough of her blade on it to float it over Prunster and into the goal for the lead. 

* Less than two minutes into the final stanza, Colby's Megan Rittenhouse created her own breakaway opportunity and converted, tying the game 1-1. 

* In the final two minutes of the third, Amherst was putting the pressure on the second seeded Mules. Xu fired a slot just wide from low in the slot. Angelina Wiater had a chance with 18 seconds left when she ticketed a shot for the lower right-hand corner, but Prunster gloved the shot and the game headed to overtime. 

* Amherst goalie Caitlin Walker was busy in the overtime period, saving eight out of eight shots attempts from Colby. Amherst had six shots. 

* It was Wiater who set up the game-winning tally in overtime, making an end-to-end rush, circling behind the Colby goal from right to left and heading back toward the blueline, where she let the puck go to Avery, who skated onto it, cut into the slot through the face-off circle for a better look, and deposited a back-hand shot over the right pad of Prunster to send the Mammoths back to the championship game. 



BY THE NUMBERS:

* Colby outshot Amherst in the game, 29-23, as Walker finished with 28 saves, eight on overtime. Prunster made 21 in the game. 

* Each team had just one penalty in the contest. 

* Amherst won the face-off battle, taking 29 of 51 draws. Wiater won 13 of 23 she took, while Kenzie MacDonald won 8 of 11.