New Haven — Randy Craig, the Eastern Connecticut Eagles hockey coach, would much prefer his teams grind out wins.

“I’m from Pittsburgh,” Craig said with a smile. “I’m a Steelers fan, so I’m a defensive guy.”

Funny, then, that the Eagles aren’t built for defensive battles. These Eagles are built to fly.

These Eagles are flying to their first state final, too.

Senior Kevin Close scored the go-ahead goal with 1 minute, 50 seconds left in Thursday’s CIAC Division III semifinal as fifth-seeded Eastern Connecticut run-and-stunned its way past top-seeded Staples 8-6 at Ingalls Rink.

The Eagles were 4-17 last season. Now they’ll play rival Tri-Town, the No. 3 seed, for their first state title at 10 Saturday morning at Ingalls.

Eastern Connecticut (18-3-3) beat Tri-Town in two of three meetings this season, including a 4-3 win in the Nutmeg Hockey Conference tournament championship game.

“Freshman year we won three or four games and that kept consistent the last three years,” Close said. “And now we’re playing in the finals. It’s crazy. It’s unbelievable.”

Unbelievable isn’t a strong enough word to describe a third period that had the fans rocking and reeling as seven goals were scored.

Sam New’s third goal of the game for Staples tied it at 6 with 2:16 remaining.

Moments later, Close, somehow, some way, beat his defender and went one-on-one with Wreckers’ goalie Zach Bloom and scored to put Eastern Connecticut back ahead 7-6.

“I put (the puck) underneath his stick,” Close said, “and he did a crossover, and he ended up going the wrong way and it lead to a breakaway.”

It must be a Waterford thing as Close is a Lancer on a team that co-ops with Fitch, East Lyme, Ledyard, Wheeler, Stonington, Griswold and Hale-Ray.

The Waterford boys’ basketball team plays Avon on Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena for the Division III title (10:30 a.m.).

“I’ll tell you what, that (Close’s goal) is nothing more than will to win,” Craig said. “That Kevin Close has the will to win like no other kid. He just has desire, desire, desire. Make no mistake about it, he’s a talented kid, too, but talent only gets you so far. He puts that will to win on top of some pretty good talent.

“Him and Evan Tower and Ryan Huta, those three controlled the play the whole game, I thought. They were a dominant line.”

Close and Huta each had two goals and an assist for the Eagles. Evan Tower and Kyle Jacobson both had a goal and an assist, Will Cannella and Devyn Jordan scored, and Quenten Dean added an assist. Rylin Fowler had 17 saves, too.

Staples finished 12-6-3.

Eastern Connecticut trailed by a goal almost the entire game ... 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-3. Yet it never let Staples pull farther ahead.

Close’s first goal gave Eastern Connecticut its first lead, 5-4 with 4:39 remaining in the game.

“(We told each other) 'We can do this,’” Close said. “No one is expecting this from us. Everyone has Staples winning it. We can prove them wrong.

“When you’re all working together like that, it’s hard to stop a team.”

n.griffen@theday.com