In their last two games of the regular season, the men’s hockey team (14-7-3 overall, 8-7-3 NESCAC) fell to Connecticut College (13-9-2 overall, 10-7-1 NESCAC)at home, 4-1, on Friday night but rebounded Saturday against Tufts, 4-0, in the seniors’ final home game at Watson Arena.
The loss put Conn. College ahead of Bowdoin in conference standings, and took away any chance of the Polar Bears hosting a playoff game next week.
The loss to Conn. College was only the second loss at home for the Polar Bears this season. Zach Kokosa ’17 scored Bowdoin’s lone goal, which tied the game late in the first period. Kokosa received the puck in the neutral zone and skated into the Camels’ defense before burying a snapshot over the goalie’s right shoulder into the back of the net.
However, Conn. College retook the lead with less than two minutes to go in the second period, and padded its lead with two more goals before the end of the game. Despite the loss, Bowdoin outshot the Camels, 35-23, and had two shots bounce off the post.
“We didn’t get a lot of red lights on Friday night and we would have liked to have gotten a few more timely saves,” said Head Coach Terry Meagher. “That was the main difference between Friday and Saturday night.”
With seemingly little to play for against Tufts in the final regular season game, Bowdoin still came out firing, and finished with a satisfying shutout victory.
“For me the highlight of the weekend was that the team came back from the loss on Friday and played with energy and intensity,” Meagher said. “It showed that this a team of character to come back and play a complete game. This team is not a mail-in team, they don’t mail in any games or practices.”
Bowdoin took a 1-0 lead 8:35 into the first period when Spencer Antunez scored ’18 scored the first of his two goals in the period. Connor Quinn ’15 fed Antunez a pass to the right post where Antunez one-timed it for the lead. On a power play in the 16th minute, Antunez doubled the lead with a shot that deflected off the crossbar into the net.
In the final period, Mike Schlagel ’15 scored his first Bowdoin goal in his final regular season game. With the goalie pulled, Schlagel maneuvered his way around the Tufts defense and slid the puck into the back of the net. One minute later, with the goalkeeper back in net, Danny Palumbo ’15 secured the 4-0 win after knocking in a rebound off a Ryan Collier shot ’15. Max Fenkell ’15 earned his fifth career shutout in his final regular season game, and made 20 saves in the win.
This weekend, fifth seed Bowdoin will travel to four seed Williams for the first round of the NESCAC tournament. Bowdoin will look to defend its NESCAC title for the third straight year, winning as the one seed in 2013 and the five-seed last year.
“Williams and Bowdoin have had a lot of exciting competition over the last five or six years in these single elimination tournaments so we’re ready, they’re ready, and both teams have great respect for each other,” Meagher said.
The teams have played twice this season. The first game was a 3-3 tie at Bowdoin, and the second was a 5-2 Polar Bear loss at Williams. The teams will meet this Saturday at Williams at 3 p.m.