DE PERE, Wis. — Heading into last weekend’s matchup with the Trine Thunder, the Finlandia Lions mens hockey team was winless in their first five overtime games, including one tie.

Over the course of the weekend, the Lions found themselves in extra sessions both nights.

After a 3-2 loss Friday night, tempers and emotions boiled over as the Lions fought off a power play that bled into the overtime only to see the Thunder strike a little over a minute later.

“The emotions, after the game, for our guys boiled over and I don’t blame any player because we sacrificed a lot that night to get at least the point and it was just unfortunate,” Finlandia head coach Joe Burcar said.

The Lions had worked hard to take a 2-1 lead after sophomore defenseman Dylan Paavola and freshman winger Tyler Vanuden struck just 1:23 apart in the middle frame.

The Thunder evened things at 2-2 late in the second, and the game remained even until freshman forward Zach Erhardt took a tripping penalty with 19:39. Burcar was not pleased with the call.

“Unfortunately on Friday, they called a penalty with like 20 seconds left in the third period, which gave them power-play time,” Burcar said. “I’ve reviewed that. Again, we’re not gonna blame anybody. I just didn’t see the call. I just didn’t. For everything that was going on in a scramble in front of the net, if they wanted to call a penalty, they could have called six of them.”

After the loss, Burcar and his staff met with the team for a lengthy amount of time and then repeated the procedure the following morning, hoping to keep the young core from carrying the events of Friday’s finish into Saturday.

Junior winger Cale Markham scored just 5:10 into the contest to spark the Lions to a 1-0 lead. Vanuden then struck 11:04 later to put the hosts up 2-0.

The Thunder cut the lead in half by scoring a goal with 0.1 seconds left in the period. Burcar felt that his young team took the period end for granted and did not fight to the final buzzer, which allowed Trine the time needed to score.

The game remained 2-1 in Finlandia’s favor until Trine struck 3:58 into the third to even the contest at 2-2. Against the Lions had to kill off a late penalty, this time with 2:44 left in regulation.

In overtime, captain Connor Hannon, who has spent the season playing defense for the Lions but was moved up to forward in the third period, took advantage of a well-placed pass from Vanuden and buried the game-winning goal at 3:19, giving the Lions their first overtime win of the season.

Hannon has been willing to do whatever Burcar’s staff has asked of him. His efforts have helped him lead the team in goals (eight), power play goals (two), shorthanded goals (two) and points (12) in 16 games despite spending the bulk of the season on the blue line.

“He shined,” Burcar said of Hannon. “We talk about liking this team so much, but it always seems we’ve got probably four or five guys that we have asked to play different roles at any given time. Connor, with the ‘C’ on his jersey, will do anything he needs to do to help this team win. The adjustment of bringing him back up front to help us when we had a couple of guys banged up in third, he was our captain that night.”

While the players on the ice celebrated finally breaking through, Burcar said the celebration on the bench was equally euphoric.

“I think Micah (Stipech) wanted to tackle me,” said Burcar. “Finally, you know, finally.

“I think from a coaching standpoint, all of us were just more happy for the players because of their work ethic. Just to see them be rewarded. It was a gutsy effort. It was just a gutsy, gutsy effort because of what happened Friday night here, because of how many times it’s happened throughout the year, because it’s later in the year, because the points were there.”

“There were just so many things: the Friday night was such a meltdown of emotions and then it was just the complete opposite less than 24 hours later that the emotions were just oozing. (It was) a drastic change in emotions less than 24 hours,” said Burcar.

The Lions (4-13-2, 2-10-2 NCHA) are fifth in the NCHA North Division despite the win Saturday. However, they are just three points out of a tie for third.

This weekend, Finlandia hits the road to face the No. 24 St. Norbert Green Nights for the first time since the Green Knights ended their season in the first round of the NCHA playoffs last season.

While the Lions need the points to move up the standings in the playoff race, the Green Knights enter the weekend also in search of points as their 8-8-2 overall record and 6-6-2 NCHA record, good for 16 points, has them trailing Marian by two points for first in the division

The Green Knights are fresh off a split with No. 14 Adrian last weekend, winning 1-0 before losing 3-2.

Junior Peter Bates leads the team with nine goals and a team-high 25 points in 18 contests. Sophomore Peyton Frantti has also been good, scoring nine goals and 21 points.

Junior Luke Davison paces the blue line with five goals and 15 points.

Junior Ryan Bontorin saw action in the first 10 games of the season for the Green Knights going 3-7-0 in that span with a 2.91 goals against average and a .897 save percentage. He has seemingly lost the starting job to freshman Colby Entz, who is 5-1-2 in eight appearances with a 2.07 goals against average and a .928 save percentage with one shutout.

The Lions and Green Knights will face off Friday at 8 p.m. at the Cornerstone Family Center in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin. Saturday’s contest is set to start at 5 p.m.