FRAMINGHAM – The Winchester boys hockey team keeps producing heroes, and Luke Sardone didn’t shy away from his turn to wear the cape.

With 1:52 left in overtime of a Div. 1 state semifinal Saturday night at Loring Arena, the sophomore punched the No. 11 Red and Black’s ticket to TD Garden by scoring the golden goal of a 3-2 win over No. 18 Arlington Catholic.

The Cougars had marched back from a 2-0 first-period deficit to eventually force overtime. But Sardone – who assisted Danny Collins and David Strong on their golden goals in Winchester’s two other overtime wins this tournament – paired with goalie Aiden Emerick (23 saves) to make sure that blown lead wouldn’t derail their season.

Winchester reaches the state final for the first time since 2019 and will play the winner of Sunday night’s No. 1 St. John’s Prep-No. 4 Xaverian semifinal on March 17 at TD Garden.

“This time being the one who scored, it’s the same feeling as assisting on the goal because you made the play, but it’s just so much better to get that feeling of the goal,” Sardone said. “Actually winning in the Final Four and going to the Garden, not a lot of public schools have done that in the past five or so years. It’s an awesome feeling.”

Red and Black head coach Gino Khachadourian joked on March 2 he didn’t want to have to see who would take the next turn this postseason to deliver the overtime game-winner. Sardone had his back.

Winchester staved off a few scary moments, but Winchester only allowed one shot on Emerick in the extra time and Collins used his signature speed on the other end to set up a 2-on-1. His centering pass dropped Sardone to one knee to get his hands behind it and send an already raucous crowd into a frenzy.

“He’s a guy who – overtime, we’ve been working on that – and he’s done a fine job at it, that’s for sure,” Khachadourian said. “You can’t write it up. It’s like a story. I told them before this whole postseason thing started that we’re writing our own story here. Like a Netflix series that we’re going to keep winning and keep going. … It’s surreal. I knew that we had something special.”

Much of the crowd’s energy was amplified by a fast start, as the Red and Black scored twice in less than one minute for a 2-0 first-period lead. Collins followed a blocked shot with the game’s opening tally less than seven minutes in, and Caiden Brady scored on a rebound shortly after.

Cougars goalie Patrick Clair (34 saves) stood on his head to keep Winchester off the board through the end of regulation, creating an opportunity for a rally. Tyler Heldenbergh scored with two minutes left in the second to cut the deficit in half, and a pair of penalties at the end of the frame set up a 5-on-3 power play to start the third. Winchester killed the first, but Nico Tashjian needed less than a minute to tie things up.

Back and forth the teams traded rushes, but neither team wavered in the clutch until the end of overtime.

“They believed in themselves,” Khachadourian said. “It’s huge for the town, for the community, for the public schools. It’s crazy.”