Nearly two days removed from the last hockey game he played this winter and Andover’s Alex Duncan was still weary and achy.
There is good reason, though. He was part of the second longest tournament game in NCAA Div. 3 men’s hockey history – consisting of seven periods (including four overtimes) and a total of 135 minutes and 17 seconds.
The Curry College junior forward was still feeling the affects two days after that heartbreaking 4-3 quarterfinal round loss to Hobart, the No. 1 team in the country and defending national champion.
“I can barely walk,” the Andover resident said laughing during a telephone interview on Monday afternoon.
“I didn’t go to bed until 5:30 in the morning (on Sunday) and that was not my choice. I was cramping in bed and my legs were just in the worst pain,” said Duncan. “I got on the team bus to drive back to our home rink in Canton. Then I drove my car back to my apartment in Dorchester and I honestly have not left my couch since. I’ve been stuck here like Gorilla Glue.”
The No. 12 seed Curry (21-6-1) took a 2-0 lead with Duncan assisting on the second goal. Hobart (26-2-1) then scored the game’s next three goals. Curry tied the game up late in the third period which sent the game into overtime.
Then a second overtime.
Then a third overtime.
With 4:33 seconds left of the fourth 5-on-5, 20-minute sudden-death overtime period, Hobart’s Bauer Morrissey finally ended it with the game winning goal.
The shot from Morrissey was Hobart’s 102nd of the game. Curry goalie Shane Soderwall tied a NCAA record by making 98 saves Hobart outshot Curry 102-47, including 53-28 in the overtime periods.
“When we tied it 3-3, we were just saying ‘this is our game, ‘we’re going to win this and we’re going to beat the number one team in the country,” said Duncan. “It then went into overtime and we said there’s no way it’s going to get through one (full) overtime (period) and we’re going to win it this period. Then it went to the second overtime and it was the same mindset.”
That mindset quickly changed in the third and fourth overtimes.
“It was kind of like you were hallucinating a little bit out there. Everyone was so tired and everyone was cramping up. The mental battle (throughout the entire game) was insanely hard. In those overtimes, it was just nuts,” he said. “At that point, everyone is thinking ‘have fun and play’ but you’re also thinking ‘I don’t want to be the guy who losses the game for your team’. That’s definitely on your mind, but that was kind of thrown out of the picture the longer we played.”
The more minutes that came off the clock, the more difficult it was just to make it through a 30-to-40 second shift.
“You try to get through the shift and you come back to the bench and guys are stretching at the corner of the bench trying not to cramp up,” said Duncan. “You’re taking electrolytes and anything you could possibly get your hands on to get through just that period.”
In the middle of the third overtime, Duncan said he started cramping up and was in incredible pain.
“If I flexed my quads, it would just stiffen up and I couldn’t move at all. My parents were at the game too and they said when they saw me after the game was over, it looked like I lost ten to fifteen pounds in my face. They said my life was just drained from my body, which is pretty funny,” he said.
Two days later, his legs still have the jelly-type feeling, and despite the after affects physically, this is a game that he said he will never forget.
“I witnessed our seniors playing their last final game and some of them weren’t even crying because none of them really could be upset with how it went,” he said. “We put seven periods of hockey together and we all gave it our all. I have been in double-overtime games before, but never four-overtimes. It just stings still because we were up 2-0 and ended up losing.”
Twitter: @JamiePote