Trinity (16-4-2;13-2-1 NESCAC (27 pts) ) could not solve Sean Lawrence on Saturday and they needed OT to survive on Sunday, but the end result was the Bantams locking up their first regular season crown since 2015 and their third of the Matt Greason era ('14,'15, '18). Against Colby in Waterville, Lawrence posted a masterful 46 save shutout to end Trinity's nine game winning 3-0 (Box). More from LPfan2004 later on this game. On Sunday, Trinity needed OT but they downed Bowdoin 4-3 (Box) to lock up the top spot in the conference headed into a final weekend tilts against Wesleyan.
Connor Girard's solid play in net powered Amherst (11-7-4;8-4-4 20 pts) into second place thanks to a 3-1 (Box) win over Tufts and a convincing 4-1 (Box) win over now third place Conn College (9-10-3; 8-5-3 19 pts). The Camels fought to a 2-2 tie the night before that contest against fourth place Hamilton (14-6-2;8-6-2 18 pts) in a game in which the Conts outshot the Camels 52-16. The Conts goalie only stopped 14 of the 16 shots, but Hamilton was glad that the offending netminder was senior Evan Buitenhuis, who returned to action at the Clinton Arena in the Celebration of 100 years of college hockey on Saturday. Boots then put in a decidedly better performance the next day back at Sage with a 25 save, 2-0 shutout of the Jumbos (Box). The celebration of 100 years of hockey in Clinton included former Hamilton and NHL goalie Guy Hebert receiving an honorary doctorate with Stan Fischler MCing and a general salute to former Hamilton AD Albert Prettyman, "the father of college hockey," who brought the sport to the school and convinced them to build Sage Rink three years later.
Next up is Wesleyan (11-6-5; 7-5-4 18 pts) who heads into the final weekend locked with Hamilton after a close 4-3 loss to Bowdoin (Box) and a disappointing 3-3 tie (Box) with current sixth seed Colby (11-10-1; 8-7-1 17 pts). Cardinal goalie Tim Sestak nearly shut down the Mules (49 saves) as Lawrence had done to Trinity the night before in the same rink, but Colby scored three goals in the third (two from Justin Grillo) to earn the tie.
In seventh, Williams (12-10-0; 8-8-0 16 pts) rebounded from a rough stretch with a pair of 2-1 victories (Box, Box) over last place Middlebury (4-16-2; 2-14-2 6 pts). Senior forward CJ Shuggart scored three of the four Ephs goals en route to player of the week honors in conference. The Friday night game was particularly interesting, as the Panthers, desperate to make a push for a playoff spot, pulled Stephen Klein in overtime for the extra skater.
The Panthers sit three points behind the Jumbos (4-14-4; 3-10-3 9 pts), who are also on the outside looking in, and four points behind Bowdoin (8-14-11; 5-11-0 10 points) whose two points on the weekend in the upset of Wesleyan leapfrogged the Polar Bears into the last playoff spot position headed into the final weekend against Conn College and a Tufts team that sits one point out of the aformentioned final playoff spot.
Only four points separates second place Amherst from bitter rivals, seventh place . Don't look now, but the team one spot behind you might be coming for your home playoff seeding.
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