South St. Paul scored with just 5.7 seconds remaining in overtime on Thursday at Graham Arena I, pulling out a 2-1 victory against Rochester Mayo in a non-conference boys hockey game.
It's the second consecutive season these teams have played to a one-goal game. The Packers beat the Spartans, 3-2, last January at South St. Paul.
On Thursday, Mayo took a 1-0 lead in the second period when Justyn Sweet scored a power-play goal, with an assist from Jack Dingle.
South St. Paul (7-9-1) tied the score at 13:14 of the third period, forcing overtime.
Mayo outshot the Packers, 33-26, and Spartans goalie Case Hansen made 24 saves in the loss.
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"Case did a good job; he made a lot of nice saves," Mayo assistant coach Todd Huyber said. "We came out like gangbusters. We had a lot of good chances in the first, we just couldn't get them to go in."
Mayo, which dropped to 11-6-0 overall, saw its three game winning streak snapped. The Spartans have now played three overtime games this season and have a 1-2-0 record in those games. The loss to South St. Paul was Mayo's seventh one-goal game this season; the Spartans are 4-3-0 in those games.
The Spartans are back in action Saturday, when they play a key Big Nine Conference game at Albert Lea. A Mayo victory would put it in first place in the conference. The Spartans are one point behind conference-leading Owatonna, which beat Albert Lea, 6-1, on Thursday.
