Trinity (9-3-2;6-1-1 in NESCAC) looked to right the ship at home vs the Maine clubs after a sluggish 1-3-2 stretch which saw the PK unit kill only nine power play opportunities in their opponents' last seventeen man advantages headed into a matchup with Colby. The Bantams remedied this malady, at least temporarily, with two kills in the first period. The only tally of a back-and-forth first frame, which saw only two iceings, came with less than a minute to play when senior Anthony Sabitsky knocked home a power play goal set up by a blast from James Callahan.
The second period in Hartford was bonkers with five penalties as well as five goals. Nick O'Connor took the opening faceoff and nearly scored seven seconds into the frame. While Alex Morin turned aside the first attempt, O'Connor put in the equalizer just ten seconds later. The Mules would take the lead three and a half minutes later just two seconds after a power play expired when Mike Rudof finished off a tic-tac-toe play from Phil Klitirinos and Kienan Scott. the Bantams would own the rest of the period with a beaut of a shorthander from Connor Hegarty, a power play goal from Tyler Whitney (his first goal in eight games) and Griff Martyn's first goal in nearly two years. The Bantams cruised to a 5-2 victory (Box) with Sean Lawrence making 37 saves in defeat and Morin collecting 27 saves to start to get back on track.
On Saturday afternoon the Bantams took care of Bowdoin (4-11-0;2-8-0 NESCAC) 4-1 (Box) in a game which saw Trinity pepper PB senior netminder Peter Cronin with 52 shots. The Bants had a second straight game with a short handed tally - though no power play goals from either team - and blueliner Nick Fiortento, he formerly of Northeastern and Fordham Prep before (Hail men of Fordham, Hailscored his first collegiate power play tally on a give-and-go from Liam Feeney.
The Polar Bears started the weekend the night before at Spurrier-Snyder Rink facing off against the then 6-2-3 Cardinals of Wesleyan. Neither team went with their starting goalie, as George Blinick made his 5th start for Wesleyan and Erik Wurman made his 2nd start for Bowdoin.
Both goalies played great in the first two periods, with
neither one letting in a goal. There was, however, many penalties committed.
There were two occasions in which the teams played four on four, and one in which it was three on four. Wesleyan went 0 for 2 on power plays in these
periods, while Bowdoin went 0 for 3.
Bowdoin made the third period much more interesting, as
Spencer Antunez scored his second goal of the season less than six minutes in
off an assist from Austin Ricci. Wesleyan soon evened out the score, as Vincent
Lima made up for an unconverted power play less than a minute after the power
play ended. The period went on without any more major events, and it looked
like it was going into overtime when Wesleyan got the puck with less than 10
seconds left. Sean Ross fired a shot of desperation with four seconds left, and
it looked like it was going high. Wurman tried to catch it in his glove, but
didn’t handle it cleanly and it slipped into the back of the net. Wesleyan obviously won the game 2-1 (Box) on this goal and avoided
overtime. Both goalies finished with a respectable 29 saves, but the one extra
shot from Wesleyan proved costly.
Wesleyan (8-2-3;4-2-2) then swept the weekend with a 5-1 (Box) win over a Colby (7-6-0;6-4-0) team that left the Nutmeg State empty-handed thanks to Tim Sestak's 42 saves for the red and white. Senior Dylan Holze scored two tallies to end the game with 21 points (12-9-21) in 14 games on the season. Holze had a total of 30 points (13-17-30) total in 66 collegiate games headed into the season. Lawrence gave up five goals on 33 shots before being pulled for junior Mack Burton, who made nine saves in his first fifteen minutes of action on the season.
Rounding out the Connecticut action, Connecticut College (5-8-0; 5-3-0 NESCAC) completed their first weekend sweep in at least two seasons behind NESCAC player of the week Conner Roderick's strong goaltending. On Saturday, Roddericks made 33 saves to shut out Hamilton 3-0 (Box), despite the Continentals having eight power plays and limiting the Camels to just nine shots. The Conts goalie, Anthony Tirabassi, who had been stellar in net heading into the game - one goal allowed on 98 shots - gave up six goals on eight shots faced in his first NESCAC start. Starting goaltender Evan Buitenhuis did not dress for either game on the weekend after leaving the Bowdoin game in the 1st period on January 5th.
The Camels survived the visiting Amherst (5-6-3;3-3-3) Mammoths on Sunday 3-2 (Box) after jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd. Freshman Paul Capozzi netted his team leading sixth of the season while frosh Kyle Moss scored his first collegiate tally on a wrap around and sophomore Brendan O'Connell also scored his first career goal on a redirect. Jack Fitzgerald and Joey Lupo's shorthanded tally in the third period were not enough to bring the Purple and White back.
The Mammoths droped their contest a day earlier in Medford, MA against a resurgent Tufts (3-9-2;2-5-1) team that saved their season with two home wins after tying second ranked Endicott earlier in the weekend. On Saturday, sophomore Giancarlo Ventre made his second career NESCAC start (both have been against Tufts) for Amherst and gave up four goals on 23 shots. Reigning Second Team All-NESCAC goalie Nik Nugnes earned his first win of the season in style with 33 saves and a shutout. Four different Jumbos scored on the evening, including leading scorer, senior Brian Brown, for the 4-0 victory (Box).
On Sunday, the Jumbos rolled over Hamilton (9-4-1;4-4-1 NESCAC) with a 5-3 victory (Box). Tufts got on the board less
than a minute in from a Brendan Ryan goal, his second of the season. Other
goals in the period came from Hamilton’s Brandon Willett and Tufts’ Charley
Borek. Besides these three goals, nothing else happened in the period, not even
one power play. Hamilton, feeling a little jealous, started the second period
faster than Tufts started the first with a Jason Brochu goal 11 seconds in.
This goal tied the game at 2, however, the tie didn’t last long because Mason
Babbidge scored his third goal of the season less than four minutes
into the period. A couple penalties came after this, but no more goals were
scored.
The Tufts fourth line gave them a 2-goal lead with about
13 minutes left in the game. The goal was scored by Ross Delabruere, his first
of the season, and it was assisted by Clay Berger and Jordan Haney. The aformentioned Brown scored his team leading 7th goal of the season with less than five minutes
left in the period to give the Jumbos a 3-goal lead and secure them the game.
Tufts’ Jordan Haney and Cory Gottfried each got a penalty with less than two
minutes left. This, combined with Hamilton’s pulled goalie, gave the
Continentals a 6 on 3 opportunity, which is something very rare in hockey.
Hamilton used this to score one goal, Jason Brochu’s second of the game, but it
was not enough to give them a victory, and Tufts won the game 5-3. Both teams will
not have play until next weekend. Tufts plays Trinity on Friday and Wesleyan on
Saturday, while Hamilton plays Amherst on Saturday and SUNY Canton on Sunday. (This is
LPfan2004, signing off.)
The main take aways from the weekend are that the NESCAC is gonna NESCAC. Colby and Hamilton, pre-season favorites to be at the top, both showed significant chinks in the proverbial armor, especially the Continentals with the uncertain future of Boots in net. Trinity asserted itself as the class of the conference again, as they did last year, after a mediocre start in non-conference play. Surprising sweeps of the weekend by Conn College and Tufts also will make the rest of the season interesting. We didn't have to Make The NESCAC Competitive Again™, because it always has been.
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