Coming off a bye week and entering one of the most crucial parts of its season, the men’s hockey team split its games last week, beating Hamilton and losing to NESCAC-leader Amherst (11-3-0 NESCAC, 13-6-1 overall).
The Polar Bears had their longest road trip of the year last weekend, traveling seven hours to Hamilton to take on the Continentals and another three hours to Williams the next day.
“It’s a long trip [and] it’s the hardest trip of the year, and to go out and win the first game was certainly a plus,” said Head Coach Terry Meagher.
Against Hamilton, the team dug themselves an early hole, allowing two goals only 34 seconds into the second period—one an unassisted goal off of a rebound put away by Evan Haney.
However, after coming back from many early deficits this year, the team knew it could fight back.
“It’s sort of been our M.O. for whatever reason, but we were showing good resiliency and we have won a few when we were down,” said Meagher. “It’s just the way goal sports go sometimes.”
“We were playing pretty well, so we knew if we just kept at it, we’d get one,” said Mitch Barrington ’17.
The Polar Bears quickly turned the momentum in their favor with a huge power-play goal by Matt Rubinoff ’16 2:12 into the second period.
Later in the period, Bowdoin tied the game with a short-handed goal by Colin Downey ’14.
After the weekend, Downey leads D-III with three short-handed goals on the year. The whole Bowdoin team has excelled in penalty kill situations this year, leading D-III with 10 short-handed goals.
“I think our penalty kill is what separates us from the rest of the teams in the league,” said Danny Palumbo ’15.
The Polar Bears took the lead when Harry Matheson ’14 scored with just under a minute left in the period.
From that point on, Bowdoin’s stellar defense held on to the lead.
With 16 saves in the third period, including eight short-handed saves, goaltender Steve Messina ’14 secured the game for Bowdoin.
After beating Hamilton 3-2, Bowdoin fell to Amherst 5-3 the next day.
Though the Polar Bears lost by two goals, the score did not tell the story of the whole game. Bowdoin dominated most of the game, holding an advantage in shots (33-16) and puck possession.
“I think we played one of our best games of the year,” said Barrington. “We were dominating them throughout the whole game and then we had a few breakdowns and they capitalized on pretty much every one of them.”
“We had so many doorstep chances,” added Palumbo. “But I guess we just didn’t bury it.”
The scoring started with a goal from Amherst’s Chris Roll, but was quickly followed by a goal four minutes later from Harry Matheson ’14.
The Lord Jeffs regained the lead with two unanswered goals later in the period, leaving Bowdoin down 3-1.
Minutes later, Kyle Lockwood ’14 scored to bring Bowdoin within one goal going into the second period.
After the break, Downey, Bowdoin’s leading goal-scorer, netted his 16th of the season on a 5-on-3 power-play to tie the game at 3-3.
Held scoreless in the second period, Amherst netted two goals off Bowdoin miscues in the third, including the eventual game-winning goal by Mike Cashman.
“We were pretty frustrated with the loss,” said Barrington. “But in the locker room, we were saying that we knew we outplayed them, so let’s keep on playing like this, and if we do, we’ll have a real good shot at the tournament.”
Bowdoin now must shift its focus to a tough Trinity team that they lost to earlier in the season 5-1.
“It’s payback time from our time down there in Hartford,” said Palumbo.
The team will play Trinity (16-4-0) on Friday at 7 p.m. and Wesleyan (10-8-2) on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Watson Arena.