Leaving Bowdoin last Friday, the men’s ice hockey team was caught in the middle of a Massachusetts driving ban during Nemo, forcing them spend the night in Marlborough county.
 
 “I’ve been doing this a long time and I was as proud of this team as any team I’ve had here and how they dealt with the whole adventure and how they conducted themselves in the hotel for 48 hours and how they represented the college,” said Head Coach Terry Meagher.  “They got to a game late Sunday afternoon and played their hearts out.”

With last Saturday’s Trinity game also postponed until this Monday, according to Meagher, the Polar Bears only faced off against Wesleyan on Sunday.

“Spending two days in a hotel without skating wasn’t an ideal situation before a game,” said captain Tim McGarry ’13.  “But it offered a chance for our team to reconnect and build team unity which will benefit us down the stretch.”

That opportunity for team bonding paid off in the first period against the Cardinals, when sophomores Ryan Collier and John McGinnis worked the puck to fellow classmate Connor Quinn ’15, who scored the opening goal—his seventh of the season.  Quinn, again in the middle of the action, passed the puck to Ollie Koo ’14 in the beginning of the second period and he scored, making the score 2-0.

Bowdoin soon found itself in penalty trouble and after killing five penalties finally let up a goal to Wesleyan.

“Steve Messina made some very big saves that kept us alive when we were scrambling to kill off penalties in the second period,” said McGarry.  “On more than one occasion he stopped point blank shots with big glove saves.  Steve is a big game goalie and loves to be in those situations.” 

The Cardinals had the momentum from that point on, finding the equalizer less than a minute later.  The beginning of the third period saw Wesleyan then take the lead 3-2.  But Bowdoin responded quickly when Rob MacGregor ’13, a key player who just returned from a long hiatus due to injury, found Rob Toczylowski ’13 to even the score.  

“Wesleyan is a really good team that probably has the top two lines that are as good as anybody’s in the league.  And they scored a power play goal late in the power play kind of on what you would call a puck-luck redirect and then they came down and had another goal that had eyes,” said Meagher.  “But we had a lot of opportunities.  It was a playoff-type game and it was played at a high intensity.”

The squads battled each other in a dead heat for the rest of the period and even an overtime period could not tip the balance in anyone’s favor.  The game ended in a 3-3 tie, making Wesleyan the only NESCAC team undefeated against Bowdoin this season.

“In both of our games against Wesleyan we have gotten ourselves into penalty trouble, giving them opportunities to get back into the game,” said McGarry.  “We would love to have another shot at them in the playoffs and it would be a great feeling to end their season.”
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The playoff seeding will be decided this weekend. Bowdoin currently sits in first place, but is only two points ahead of Williams, Amherst and Middlebury. Those three teams will be trading points this weekend as Amherst plays both teams and the other teams each play Hamilton. There is an opportunity for a reshuffling of the top five headed into the playoffs, but as long as Bowdoin can top last-placed Tufts and potential eighth seed Connecticut College this weekend, the Polar Bears should carry the No. 1 seed into the playoffs.