Courtesy of Brian Beard

The men’s hockey team (10–4–1; 6–2–1 NESCAC) is having a strong January of gameplay. The team kicked off the month on a high note by winning the inaugural Lobster Pot tournament on January 3 with a 5–0 win against the University of Southern Maine (USM) and a 6–2 win against the University of New England (UNE). The team then entered a busy two weeks of conference play, dropping two games to Hamilton College (9–1–2; 5–0–1 NESCAC) (2–3) and Amherst College (6–4–2; 2–4–1 NESCAC) (1–2). However, the Polar Bears rebounded to beat Trinity College (8–5–0; 2–5–0 NESCAC) 4–2 and Wesleyan University (5–8–0; 4–4–0 NESCAC) 3–0 at home.

The Lobster Pot tournament brought together all four of Maine’s Division III men’s hockey programs—Bowdoin, Colby, UNE and USM, showcasing the strength of in-state competition. It was Polar Bear territory all weekend with impressive performances against USM and nationally-ranked UNE.

The Polar Bears got on the board quickly against USM, led by Jackson Holl ’27, who scored twice in the first period.

“In our game against USM, we came out strong and never really gave them any chance to get back in the game,” goalie Jacob Osborne ’28 wrote in an email to the Orient.

The next day, the team returned for the championship game against UNE. While the Polar Bears found the back of the net first, UNE responded by scoring two goals in 17 seconds for a 2–3 lead in the second period. However, the Polar Bears fought back, scoring in the last two minutes of the second period and finding two more goals in the first four minutes of the third to firmly take the lead. This was the first time the Polar Bears beat the Nor’Easters since 2016.

Forward Will Rice ’28 recalled the team’s mental strength following UNE’s goals.

“You would expect guys to get frustrated and start to quit, but, if anything, them scoring those goals fired us up even more,” Rice wrote in an email to the Orient. “One of our seniors, Aidan Lyons [’26], scored a huge goal to tie it back up minutes later…. A huge piece of that comeback was our positive mentality despite losing our early lead.”

The next weekend brought the Polar Bears their first two losses of the season.

“Getting swept by Hamilton and Amherst was frustrating, especially because both games were so close,” Rice wrote. “I was super impressed with how we responded in practice the week after, and it was great to sweep Trinity and Wesleyan the weekend after. Our collective mentality was awesome, and I thought our guys battled super hard to make sure we didn’t repeat the mistakes we made.”

With goals from Rice, J.J. Lemieux ’28 and Isaac Abbott ’27 as well as assists from Bryce Bollman ’27, the Polar Bears handily defeated Trinity 4–2.

Bowdoin carried this momentum into Saturday’s afternoon matchup against Wesleyan. After scoring first midway through the first period, the Polar Bears never looked back, winning 3–0. Osborne picked up his third shutout of the season with a dominating 23 saves.

Osborne emphasized how hard the team has been working in practice ahead of its important conference games.

“We have just been trying to stay consistent in our preparation and trying to improve any areas of our game that we feel have been lacking,” Osborne wrote. “We try to keep the same mentality going into every game, regardless of the opponent.”

As the Polar Bears look to continue their stretch of competitive NESCAC matchups, they are anchored by their goal of winning a NESCAC championship.

“Our goal is to win a NESCAC championship, and, at the end of the day, that is about playing winning hockey every day. We show up every day with the goal of getting better, so that when playoff time comes around, we are ready,” Rice wrote.

The Polar Bears will return to the ice tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Middlebury College (8–5–2; 4–4–1 NESCAC).