The men's ice hockey team will take the ice this weekend for the first round of the NESCAC playoffs at Amherst.
The Lord Jeffs (12-8-4, 10-6-3 NESCAC) are coming off of a loss to UMass-Boston and will be a tough opponent for Bowdoin. The Polar Bears fell to Amherst 3-2 when the two teams met at Bowdoin on February 4.
"The last time we played Amherst we ran into some penalty trouble in the first half of the game," said senior captain Kyle Hardy. "I think if we stay disciplined against a team like Amherst we should be fine."
The Polar Bears will be entering the post season after a successful weekend away against St. Anselm (10-10-2) and New England College (7-16-2).
The game Friday night against St. Anselm began with the Hawks scoring a power play goal toward the end of the first period. Throughout the second period, Rob MacGregor '13, Jay Livermore '14 and Colin Downey '14 scored to tie the game following St. Anselm goals.
Bowdoin took its first lead in the third period on a goal from Aaron O'Callahan '12. The Hawks tied the game two minutes later. With five minutes left in the game, Tim McGarry '13 capitalized off assists from Hardy and Dan Weiniger '13 to put the Polar Bears up 5-4.
When St. Anselm subsequently pulled their goalie, Downey scored a second goal on the open net. The Hawks, however, continued to keep the pressure on.
"It was obviously a little scary at times," said Hardy. "Messina and the rest of the team did a very good job clearing any rebounds from the front of the net when it mattered most."
St. Anselm did manage to score one more time, but the game ended in a 6-5 win for the Polar Bears. Steve Messina '14 had 30 saves in the victory.
"We were playing well, if you score well then you don't see the same issues we've been having," said head coach Terry Meagher. "Our patience began to pay off and we started to produce secondary scoring. St Anselm was a wild game."
"We just went back to basics and went out there to have fun," said Hardy. "We stopped trying to look for all sorts of excuses as to why we were having so much trouble scoring."
The game against New England College the next day started with a scoreless first period, but MacGregor began the scoring with a break-away goal off of a feed from Weiniger a few minutes into the second period.
The Polar Bears added to the lead a few minutes later when senior captain Kit Smith put away a rebound from O'Callahan.
"What I liked about Saturday is that as the clock went on we were very responsible as a team," said Meagher.
The Polar Bear defense was able to shut down the Pilgrims and keep them 0-6 on their power plays. Weiniger rounded out the scoring with an empty netter in the final seconds of the game. Richard Nerland recorded the 3-0 shut out with 30 saves.
"It was great to finish the season with two wins on the road," said Hardy. "We haven't been able to play our best hockey on our road trips this season, so this past weekend was very encouraging, since it looks like we will be on the road the rest of the way."
Now that Bowdoin is in the postseason, the team will be shifting its focus solely to Amherst while trying to stay true to the style of hockey the team has been playing all year.
"Now you have a little more time to prepare for one opponent, it is all about finding balance between preparation for them and trying to put yourself in a place to make plays against them without getting out of your rhythm," said Meagher. "That's the tricky part of post season is to find the balance."
"We could go over endless amounts of game film on Amherst," added Hardy. "But I think everyone knows that which ever team wants it more will come out on top this weekend."