Shattuck-St. Mary’s scored twice in the final three minutes of regulation to force OT against Fairmont, which was playing in front of a partisan crowd and less than 30 minutes away from its campus in Anaheim.

“It’s unbelievable,” Araujo said. “I’ve been thinking about this moment ever since I started playing hockey and for it to finally come true, it’s just a dream. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

While Arajuo will grab the headlines, it was the work Posinger did in the preceding seconds that gave him that opportunity.

With Fairmont trying to get the puck out of the zone, Posinger stole it near the right boards, circled up to the blue line — just barely avoiding it sliding out of the zone — and over to the left circle as he set his sights on the net. That is when he saw Araujo coming down the right side and slid the puck across the crease, where Araujo cleanly deposited it for the OT winner.

“It was amazing,” Posinger said. “I saw Marc right away when I was at the blue line, and I was just like, ‘I need to pass to him.’ I was thinking last night that it would be awesome if I could pass to a winning goal — and it happened. It’s amazing.”

Now, the pair will have their names etched in program history.

“They didn’t get much ice in overtime, and I asked them to stay ready and when they had the opportunity, they made the most of it,” Shattuck coach Tyler Ruegsegger said. “I was happy for Marc. He’s a returner on this team and I was just proud of him for that and a great play by Boris.”

Davis Damrow and Christian Plaga scored the late third-period goals for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, while Alexander Raskin and William Urtel had Fairmont’s goals. Shattuck’s goaltender Calum Keating turned away 15 shots, while Matthew Bennett had 37 saves for Fairmont.

Fairmont seemed to be a bit more physical with Shattuck-St. Mary’s and took a 1-0 lead on Raskin’s goal 4:45 into the game. It remained 1-0 until early in the second period, when Urtel converted during a power play at 1:31.

The California kids seemed to have the Minnesota powerhouse on the ropes.

“I have a lot of respect for that program,” Ruegsegger said. “They’re well-coached. They work very hard. They have a lot of talent on their team. We just tried to focus on what we were doing and stick to our plan. I felt that gave us the best chance to have success.”

But Shattuck came out determined in the third period, as evidenced by two quality shots in the first 50 seconds, one resulting in a save and another ringing off the pipes. While the payoff didn’t come immediately, it would eventually.

Damrow scored his fourth goal of the tournament with 2:52 left in regulation to give his team a chance, then Plaga tied it with his fifth tally at nationals, an unassisted effort, with 1:48 remaining.

“All of us just got pucks to the net and we all crashed in, and I was just lucky for it to go off my stick,” Plaga said.

That set up the overtime heroics that kept Shattuck-St. Mary’s four-peat alive.

“Every year is different. Every year has different challenges,” Ruegsegger said. “I really tried not to look at it like [we were going for a four-peat]. I tried to just look at what were the challenges for this group and how do we maximize this group’s ability. I couldn’t be prouder. They stuck to the plan, and it paid off.”

Araujo gave all the credit to Posinger for setting up the championship-winning goal.

“Boris is probably one of the best players I’ve ever played with and I’m so happy to be playing with him,” Araujo said. “He’s a phenomenal player and that’s a great play.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.