Men’s ice hockey grabs weekend win against Wesleyan University
January 24, 2025

Last Saturday, the men’s hockey team (6–9–0; 4–5–0 NESCAC) snapped its six-game losing streak by beating the Wesleyan Cardinals (2–9–3; 1–6–1 NESCAC) with a final score of 5–3. Ranked sixth in the NESCAC after the win, the Polar Bears will play exclusively conference games for the remainder of the season.
After a hard-fought loss against Trinity College (10–3–1; 6–1–1 NESCAC) the night before, Head Coach Ben Guite was looking for his team to play consistent hockey against Wesleyan.
“Sometimes guys overlook [Wesleyan players] because of their record, but they’re very dangerous, and they took it to us for a big part of the game,” Guite said.
Coming out firing, the Polar Bears and Cardinals combined for six goals just after the first period of play. A little over two minutes into the game, after Luke Wheeler ’25 won a faceoff on the right dot, the puck got kicked around by Richard Davis ’27 and over to Isaac Abbot ’27 on the top of the zone, who fired a slapshot through traffic for the goal.
The second goal came less than a minute later after Michael Dinges ’26 won a faceoff on the right side. Dinges got the puck to the top of the zone again, this time to Jake Sullivan ’26, whose shot found the back of the net.
The Polar Bears kept piling them on, as Will Rice ’28 made a move from the left post to make the score 3–0. Less than five minutes later, Dinges made it 4–0 with a hard shot from the right point.
Goaltender Jake Fillion ’28 made his first collegiate start for the Polar Bears. Fillion was told only the day before that he’d be protecting Bowdoin’s net versus the Cardinals, but years of preparation made him ready to step up to the moment.
“I have a lot of superstitions,” Fillion said. “I don’t really talk to many people.… I need to have a banana before every game. I do the exact same things at the exact same times before every game. Goalies are a little bit strange.”
The Cardinals fought back after Bowdoin’s quick goals, scoring two goals to end the first period. Going into the break, the score was 4–2.
“Once we got up 4–0, it’s human nature to take your foot off the gas,” Guite said. “I thought our guys did a great job once they made it 4–3 to bear down, take the hold of the game back and play really strong defense.”
The second period saw significantly less scoring than the first. The lone goal came from Wesleyan with just over a minute left in the second. The puck appeared to be a cross-ice pass from one Cardinal to another, but it suddenly deflected off a Polar Bear’s stick and into the net, making the score 4–3 with one period left to play.
“Even though those went in, it sucks, but it’s hockey,” Fillion said. “Pucks go in—you’re not going to stop everything. You just have to keep going, focusing on the next period, next play, just keep it up.”
With less than a minute left in the third and final period, Wheeler added an empty-net insurance goal, making the final score 5–3 in favor of the College. Both teams went 0–1 on power play opportunities, and Fillion ended his first start with 29 saves. The Polar Bears won the faceoff battle 44–40.
The Polar Bears will return to the Watson Arena ice today at 7 p.m. for their Military Appreciation game versus the Middlebury Panthers (7–7–0; 3–5–0 NESCAC).
Wheeler, a captain this year, was very satisfied with the team’s consistency and determination to finish the game strong.
“One of the themes of our team is being stonecutters. Consistency is so important, especially if you want to be able to win big games,” Wheeler said. “I was trying to focus on maintaining that consistency, helping push guys to maintain theirs as well and play as a team.”
Last week, Wheeler was nominated for the 2025 Hockey Humanitarian Award, the only Division III player out of the 14 nominees. Wheeler helped with United Hockey and their Special Olympics program and coordinated the Hockey Fights Cancer and Teddy Bear Toss games for the team.
“He does everything to perfection,” Guite said. “He competes in every aspect of the game—pays great attention to detail and is somebody that can score for us. Whenever he’s on the scoresheet, we typically win.”
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