The men’s ice hockey team will continue its series of road games this weekend, facing off against Tufts today and then Connecticut College on Saturday. These will be the last games for the Polar Bears before the winter break, concluding a busy and successful start to the season.
“The first half of this season has been a grind and after this weekend we will have played 10 games in 21 days,” said senior captain Daniel Weiniger. “We won’t do too much vigorous practicing before the weekend to make sure we are fresh. Coach Meagher always tells us our season is broken up into three little seasons and this weekend closes up the first one.”
The Polar Bears are coming off a dominant performance in a rivalry weekend, beating the Colby Mules in their 199th and 200th meeting. In front of a sellout home crowd on Friday night, Robert Toczylowski ’13 opened the scoring against Colby late into the first period, when he found a loose puck in front of the Mules’ goal and slid it inside of the left post. Bowdoin retained its momentum, and minutes later Weiniger was able to beat one Colby defender before blasting the puck over the glove side shoulder of the goalie for the game’s second tally.
Colby started to come back early in the second period, taking advantage of a turnover in the Bowdoin defensive zone to bring the score to 2-1. The Mules dominated most of the frame, but neither team was able to add any more goals to the score.
Bowdoin came out of the gates firing in the final period when Tozcylowski beat the Colby goalie again on the left side only a few minutes into the period. Steve Messina ’14 had 21 saves, including 11 stops in the final period, to preserve the 3-1 victory. Toczyowkski’s two-goal effort earned him the game’s Peter Schuh Memorial Trophy as Most Valuable Player.
Bowdoin took advantage of power plays to capitalize at Colby’s Alfond Rink on Saturday. Harry Matheson ’14 scored the first power play goal just three minutes into the contest. Colby responded with its own special teams goal before Weiniger knocked in a power play tally of his own a few minutes later. Bowdoin even found offense on the penalty kill when Rob MacGregor ’13 scored a short handed goal less than a minute into the second period. Colby managed to cut the lead back to one for the rest of the second period, but the Polar Bears put the game out of reach in the third period with goals from Connor Quinn ’15 and Kyle Lockwood ’14. Max Fenkell ’15 made 19 saves in front of the net for the Polar Bears in the 5-2 win.
“[The] Colby weekend was a wonderful weekend for a couple of reasons,” said Head Coach Terry Meagher. “First of all to honor the tradition, it was a wonderful Bowdoin event on Friday night. And then for us as a team to play well in a tough arena on Saturday, that was a tribute to the team. I thought that was one of the top three or four games we’ve played in that arena.”
“We were very disciplined in our D-zone and won our one-on-one battles,” said Weiniger. “We got great goaltending by both our goalies and our special teams were phenomenal.”
Bowdoin also triumphed 5-2 at the University of Southern Maine on Tuesday night. Colin Downey ’14 opened the scoring in the first period and John McGinnis ’15 added to the lead later in the period. USM countered quickly in the second period to cut the lead in half before Tocyzlowski answered a few minutes later. Weiniger put the game out of reach with a power play goal late in the second period and then further prevented a Husky comeback with a short handed goal in the third period. Messina made 18 saves in the victory.
Whereas in earlier games this season Bowdoin has had trouble holding onto early leads, the past few matchups have proved otherwise. Since almost blowing a three goal lead to Salve Regina on November 24, Bowdoin has only allowed two goals in the third periods of their last four games.
According to Meagher, Bowdoin has had success so far this year with their two goalie rotation between Messina and Fenkell.
“The team feels very confident playing in front of both of them,” said Meagher. “They are both close on ability and you want to develop players and give them league reps. Goaltending is not a worry right now and it’s a healthy dynamic.”
The road trip this weekend will be the last in a series of early season tests for the Polar Bears—they have two strong opponents in Tufts and Connecticut College.
“We have put ourselves in a great position to close it out and we have two wins left to meet our goals,” said Weiniger. “It’s always hard getting off the bus and winning games on the road, but great teams find a way to win in tough situations.”
Men’s hockey sweeps Colby en-route to best start since ’02
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