AMHERST, Mass. -- Ziv Deener-Chodirker scored 6:44 into the overtime period Saturday to lift Williams College by the Amherst College men's hockey team in a semifinal game of the NESCAC Tournament played at Orr Rink. 

Williams improved to 9-15-2 with the victory. The 8th-seeded Ephs will take on the 7th-seeded Polar Bears of Bowdoin Sunday at 2 p.m. back at Orr Rink.

Amherst saw its record fall to 16-6-4 on the season with the tough-luck defeat in front of a capacity crowd of 1,080 people. 

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* The entire contest was a battle of skills between Amherst goaltender Dan Dachille and Williams counterpart Evan Ruschil. Williams held a slight 35-33 edge in shots for the contest, including a 7-1 advantage in the overtime session. Amherst had outshot the Ephs 14-8 in the third period, but could not solve Ruschil. 

* The overtime started with a bang as both teams had a chance to win it in the first minute. Jonah Gold fed Mac Carso in the slot and Carso quickly flipped a backhand toward te net, but Dachille blocked it with his body. The Mammoths quickly turned the tables as Matt Toporowski flipped a long pass ahead to Ben Kuzma, who skated on to it, controlled it with his skate and went in one-on-one with Ruschil, but the Williams goalie stood his ground and turned the opportunity away. 

* With just under four minutes gone in the extra period, Zachary Murray fired a shot that Connor Merrill re-directed on goal, but Rushil made the stop. 

* With 14:10 to go, Williams' Sean Clarke made a mad dash through the neutral zone and was slashed from behind by Toporowski.  That put Williams on the power play.  The visitors controlled the puck in the Amherst zone and a Conner Berg pass from the left point found Jonah Gold in the low right face-off circle. Despite the sharp angle Gold fired on net, and Dachille made the stop, but could not locate the rebound. The puck lay in the crease as Dachille slid to the opposite side. Deener-Chodirker got his stick on it just before diving efforts by Greg McGunigle and Joey Verkerke could prevent him from doing so and the puck wound up in the top left corner of the goal. 

BY THE  NUMBERS:

* Amherst was whistled for 4 of the 5 penalties called in the game, three in the first period alone, but the Mammoths were able to kill off all but the final one.

* Dachille made 34 saves in the loss and suffered his first defeat of the season. 

* Amherst won 36 of the 64 face-offs in the game. Murray won 7 of the 11 he took.