The men’s hockey team (14-8-2) (9-8-1 NESCAC) took to the road last weekend for their final two regular season games, beating Connecticut College 5-1 and falling to Tufts 4-3. The Polar Bears finish fifth in the NESCAC and will play in a NESCAC quarterfinal matchup at Middlebury at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
Their seeding this year is the team’s lowest since the 2010-2011 season, when the Polar Bears won the NESCAC tournament but vacated the trophy in the aftermath of a hazing incident.
The team had no trouble decimating Connecticut College (9-13-2) (8-9-1 NESCAC) last Friday. Colin Downey ’14 scored a quick goal at 7:25 into regulation—his 19th of the season. Although the Camels’ Zach Shapiro buried a wrist shot from the left point at the 13:27 mark, Bowdoin responded with a goal from Kendall Culbertson ’17 just two minutes later, ending the first period 2-1 in the Bears’ advantage.
The quiet of the second was broken with 1:26 left. The power play yielded a shot on goal by Bowdoin’s Zach Kokosa ’17, which was then rebounded by Culbertson, who stuffed the puck into the net, giving the Bears a 3-1 lead. It was junior John McGinnis’ breakaway with just 10 seconds left in the second period that gave Bowdoin an insurance goal, heading into the third with a commanding 4-1 lead. Joseph Lace ’17 rounded out scoring for the Bears with 12 seconds left in the game.
The team’s momentum continued into the start of the Tufts game. Mitch Barrington ’17 put one on the board just 35 seconds into the game by receiving a feed in the slot from Downey, where he then wristed the puck to the right side. However, Tufts responded quickly with a tap-in score by Kyle Gallegos, leaving the first period in a 1-1 tie.
During the second period Bowdoin capitalized on a pair of complementary penalties when Barrington fired a pass cross-ice, which Kyle Lockwood ’14 received and shot to score the Bears’ second goal with a slapshot at the 12:30 mark. The Jumbos equalized again with Patrick Lackey’s goal just a minute later. McGinnis then snaked through the Tufts’ defense and wristed a shot from the left circle to the opposite corner at the 10:40 mark. But Tufts answered yet again just two minutes later with a score off a rebound. The see-saw action ended with Tufts’ only lead of the game when the Jumbos’ Matt Pugh found Stewart Bell in the neutral zone, where he launched a shot that found the five hole.
“We got off to a lead in both games,” said Head Coach Terry Meagher. “The old sports cliché: Take it moment by moment and stay in the moment. The third period at Tufts we felt a little bit of pressure with it tied.”
Tomorrow’s quarterfinal against Middlebury will mark the start of Bowdoin’s defense of the NESCAC title.
“We really want to defend our title—we have had a hard time this year establishing our identity, our swagger,” said McGinnis. “We have been pretty inconsistent. As long as we have all 24 guys every game and play the full 60 minutes, we can definitely successfully [defend it].”