NESCAC Semis Live

And the finals are set. Top seed Trinity will look for their third straight NESCAC title on Sunday against sixth seed Colby, who make their first ever championship game.


FINAL: Colby 5 Wesleyan 1
1st Period
As expected, Sean Lawerence in net for Colby and Tim Sestak in net for Wesleyan. A pretty clean back and forth first half of the period with the only tally coming form Dan Dupont, who threw it in from just inside the blue line after a bad clear by Wesleyan. It looked like someone might have tipped it or it went off a Wesleyan defender, but Dupont gets the goal either way, only his second of the season and fourth of his career for the senior.

Things picked up in the final seven minutes with three penalties. The Mules got called for two penalties within ten seconds of one another and Sean Ross followed up a Chad Malinowski shot to pull the Cards even with 6:20 left. With four seconds left on the 2nd penalty, Wesleyan got an infraction of their own when Tyler Wyatt got booked after some extra curriculars after Lawrence froze the puck. On the ensuing PP, Klitrinos fed Spencer Hewson for a rocket one-timer to push the Mules up 2-1. At the end of the period, shots were in favor of Wesleyan 16-12.


2nd Period
A clean sheet period but not without its action. Before the puck was iced for the first time in the period with just over four to play, there was plenty of scoring opportunity, including a minute segment in which Lawrence was pick-pocketed behind the net, leading to a one timer off the post and then an odd-man rush the other way which Sestak turned aside. At the end of the middle frame, Wesleyan still held the shots advantage 30-25.

3rd Period
The Mules put the game away in the third. Just 50 seconds in it appeared the Mules caught the Cardinals napping with a deep outlet pass that Kienan Scott took into the zone and fired in for the 3-1 lead. The Cardinals had a chance to get back into it on a Colby tripping call but the Mules had a good kill with time wasting and blocked shots.

Shortly after the end of the penalty kill Cam MacDonald found himself with a defender and Sestak in his way but he one-handed it through (was it the five hole?) for his team leading 13th tally of the season. The Cardinals then got back-to-back interference calls and on the ensuing five on three a Wesleyan defender lost his stick and Phil Klitirinos fired home the fifth tally of the game for the Mules to match their 5-1 score from the Quarterfinals.

Sean Lawrence, outside of some questionable stick handling behind the net (that didn't slow down Evan Buitenhuis career, though) was solid in net with 39 saves. The win lifts the Mules to their first NESCAC title game and their first win in the semis in seven tries, most recently in 2011 before this.



Trinity 5 Williams 2
1st Period
Alex Morin in net for Trinity while Mike Monti goes with Mike Pinios over Stephen Morrissey for Williams. As they did last year, Williams jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st. Roberto Cellini from beneath the crease pushed it out in front to Tyler Scott, who beat Morin blocker side for the 1-0 lead in the opening two minutes. 11 minutes later, a beautiful dingle and dangle individual effort by Max Fuld led to Marcus Mollica knocking home a rebound. The Bantams would answer back less than four minutes later when Ryan Pffefer punched home a dump in by Michael Grande, though if you weren't in the building you wouldn't have seen it, as the NSN feed went down minutes before. Bantams led shots 13-5 after the 1st. Clean period with no penalties, only one puck iced and very few student fans.

2nd Period
Very different feel to the 2nd period that was absolutely dominated by the Bantams. Pfeffer led it off just 29 seconds in when he knocked home the rebound off a Mark Knowlton shot that Pinios left a juicy rebound for. Two minutes later Adam Anderson made a nice move past an Ephs defender to his backhand, which Pinios saved, only to have Andy Chugg from below the crease throw it off Pinios into the net while the goalie was not looking. Twelve minutes later the Bantams most skilled goalscorer got off a shot from the wing and frosh James Callahan fired home the rebound for the 4-2 Trinity lead with 4:25 left in period. Monti took the timeout to try and stem the tide.

By the end of the period Pinios had been pulled and the Bantams had a 20-4 shots advantage for the frame. Plenty of iceings and four penalties, including a pair of coincidentals and big hit from behind by the diminuitive Roberto Cellini on Tyler Whitney. The Bantams went 0-2 on the PP and actually looked better full strength than with the extra attacker.

3rd Period
The student section filled up as did the Bantams box score. Senior Tyler Whitney put in the insurance goal in halfway through the period. Black Carrick sent it around the boards to the blue line, where Liam Feeney threw it in for the re-direct by Whitney, his 41st collegiate tally. The Ephs got their first and only power play of the game but were not able to do much. After the Bantams deflated their sails the Ephs had trouble breaking out cleanly for most of the afternoon.

Haven't checked with Elias Sports Bureau or the NESCAC, but we will assume that if Trinity defeats Colby tomorrow, it will be the first time a team has beaten the bottom three seeds in the tournament to win the NESCAC title.