While cold winter conditions continue to lay siege to campus, the Polar Bears kept things hot on the ice in the last weekend of the regular season.
Bowdoin strolled to a 4-1 win last Friday against St. Michael's College and fell just short Saturday, losing 2-1 to Norwich University.
On Friday, Bowdoin scored early as Kit Smith '11 lit the lamp with 4:28 gone in the first period. In what would prove to be a good game, Kyle Hardy '11 notched the assist on that goal.
The Purple Knights pulled one back less than a minute later, yet Bowdoin promptly responded with its second. Assisted by Jordan Lalor '12 and Ryan Blossom '10, senior co-captain Mike Collins '09 scored at 17:29.
Shearer-Hardy then led the charge forward and scored at 14:46 in the second, set up by Leland Fidler '10 and Jeff Fanning '11.
With only 1:16 gone in the third, Hardy scored the Bears' fourth. Created by Fanning and Brian Fry '10, Hardy finished the regular season as Bowdoin's leading scorer with 11 goals.
Goalie Chris Rossi '10 stopped 26 shots in his fourth win of the season.
On Saturday fortune favored the Norwich Cadets as the Bears lost a close game. Ranked No. 7 in NCAA Division III Hockey and recently crowned champions of ECAC, Norwich is certainly quality opposition.
The Cadets hit first at 8:59 in the first period. Yet the Bears responded with 2:36 remaining in the frame.
Assisted by Graham Sisson '12 and Brendan Reich '11, Collins scored his fifth of the season to level the game at one.
The game remained deadlocked through the second period, but with only 1:51 gone in the third Norwich snatched a power-play goal, which proved to be the eventual winner.
Richard Nerland '12 stopped 26 of 28 shots at the Bowdoin net.
"I thought it was one of the best games we've played in a very long time," said Collins.
"Obviously, we're still not scoring enough goals, but I think we generated a lot of scoring chances that game which he hadn't been doing in the past so, overall, I think it was good for us going into the playoffs."
Finishing sixth in NESCAC standings, the Bears face Williams College in the first round of the playoffs. Although Bowdoin defeated the Ephs in the first game at Sidney J. Watson Arena 8-3, Saturday's encounter may prove more difficult.
Yet senior co-captain Matt Smith '09 is optimistic about Bowdoin's chances.
"The most difficult part about playing Williams on Saturday will be dealing with the fact that we beat them before by a pretty wide margin," he said. "It's safe to say we might underestimate them as a team since we beat them earlier in the season."
Collins considered a more cautious approach to the game Saturday, he said. The 8-3 victory "was a really close game going into the third period, it was 4-3 until about 13 minutes left, and we busted it open and they kind of gave up a little."
"The key to Williams is going to be getting on them in the first 10 minutes," he said. "If we can start out strong and pop one in maybe the first five minutes, they're going to be worried, nervous, they're going to start gripping their sticks a little bit tighter and that'll play right into our hands."
"They're a really good front-running team but they aren't as good coming from behind."
Smith adds that avoiding penalties is key to the Bears' game plan Sunday.
He emphasized, "Five on five we're a great team but once we start taking penalties is where we get into trouble."
Bowdoin will play Williams tomorrow in Williamstown, Mass., at 3 p.m.