Trinity at Middlebury 4 PM Saturday 2/2/13

Who: Trinity College Bantams (11-4-2;8-2-3)  at Middlebury College Panthers (9-8-2; 8-3-2) 
Where: Kenyon Arena  Middlebury, VT
When: 4:00 PM Saturday 2/2/13
Video/Audio: Middlebury Live Video   92.1 WVTK   

Offense: 2.94 G/GM scored (6th in NESCAC; 42nd in Nation)
Defense: 1.89 G/GM allowed (2nd in NESCAC; 7th in Nation)
Power Play: 12/75 - 16.00% (8th in NESCAC; 57th in Nation)
Penalty Kill: 68/79 - 86.1% (3rd in NESCAC; 14th in Nation)





Offense: 3.42 G/GM scored (3rd in NESCAC; 24th in Nation)
Defense: 3.16 G/GM allowed (6th in NESCAC; 41st in Nation)
Power Play: 24/83 - 28.9% (1st in NESCAC; 4th in Nation)
Penalty Kill: 60/78 - 76.9 % (7th in NESCAC; 56th in Nation)





The Lowdown: Battle for seeding

Evan Neugold (source)

Trinity enters the game on a five game win streak and Middlebury, after a tough stretch, comes in winners of four of their last five. Both teams won last night, with Trinity vanquishing Williams, 3-1, and Middlebury taking care of Wesleyan 6-3.  In their first meeting back on January 5th, the Panthers outshot the Bantams a whopping 54-22, but Benjamin Coulthard (G, Jr.) stood on his head to the tune of 53 saves for a Trinity 2-1 victory. Depending on what Williams does, the winner of this game could end up in sole possession of second place at game's end. The loser could also fall to fifth, on the outside looking in for a home game in the first round of the playoffs.

Middlebury will finish off the auction of their military fatigue jerseys today (pictured), which they wore yesterday and will wear today as well as part of the Hockey Helpers program.  Proceeds from the auction of the jerseys will go to benefit The Wounded Warrior Project, a very worthy charity that raises money for wounded members of the United States military.

TWWP is a very legit charity, but don't take our word for it. Charity Navigator, an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities, gives TWWP a four out of four stars for "Accountability and Transparency" and three out of four stars overall. You can find Charity Navigator's full profile of TTWP here. You can donate to Middlebury's TTWP fundraiser here.

Key(s) to the game: Special Forces 
Trinity is good at killing penalties  Middlebury is good at scoring power play goals. Trinity hasn't scored a single power play goal in their five game win streak, but they also haven't allowed a power play goal save one against Amherst in that time period. Before shutting Wesleyan's power play down last night, Middlebury had been somewhat porous on the penalty kill in their five game resurgence. But while they were giving up specialty goals, they were also scoring them; the only time time the Panthers were shutout in the five games on the PP was the loss to Bowdoin on the 19th. So, win the special teams battle, win the game?

Players to watch
Benjamin Coulthard (G, Jr.)  After a career game against Middlebury last time and another solid performance last night, how can we not choose him?

Derek Pimentel (F, So.) The Panthers leader in points (6-13-19) had four more last night (1-3-4) and was the only Middlebury to score in the January 5th loss to the Bantams.


No pithy comments or music for this matchup. Instead, find this inspirational intro to the Wounded Warrior Project and don't forget to make a donation.