Last weekend, the men’s hockey team wrapped up a two-game road trip with a 2-2 tie against Middlebury and a 5-2 loss to Williams. On Wednesday, they responded with a 6-1 win over the University of Southern Maine (USM).
At Middlebury, the Polar Bears found themselves down 2-1 late in the third period. With the goalie pulled, Jason Nawrocki ’18 scored his first career Bowdoin goal with 1:22 remaining in the game to tie the score at two.
“That was an all-around team effort on Friday night. It was a good battle,” said captain Danny Palumbo ’15. “Coming back after being 2-1 down late in the third showed a lot of resiliency. We put it all on the line and got the job done.”
Earlier in the season, Bowdoin defeated Middlebury 6-0. However, the Panthers have improved markedly since then.
“They were coming off road wins against two of the top five teams in the country,” Palumbo said. “So they were definitely a different team—especially at home too.”
Still, Bowdoin made enough plays to come away with a point against Middlebury. Against Williams, however, the Polar Bears were not so lucky.
“We worked hard from start to finish against Williams,” said Palumbo. “But we kind of dug ourselves into a hole after the first period and allowed three goals. I think our lines were clicking and we had pretty sustained pressure in the offensive zone, but other than that the three goal deficit in the first period definitely hurt us.”
Earlier in the season, the two teams played to a 3-3 draw. Bowdoin outshot Williams 36-30 in that game. Despite outshooting Williams again last weekend, 29-27, Bowdoin was unable to hit the back of the net as effectively as the Ephs. Connor Quinn ’15 and Spencer Antunez ’18 scored the two goals for the Polar Bears.
“We had four or five scoring chances that we didn’t capitalize on, so that was a game changer for us,” added Palumbo.
Bowdoin dropped to 9-5-3 (4-5-3 NESCAC) following the loss, while Williams improved to 11-3-2 (7-2-1 NESCAC).
Bowdoin returned to action with Wednesday’s 6-1 victory over USM. Zach Kokosa ’17 netted a scrum goal in the first period to kick off the scoring.
Daniel McMullan ’18 scored next with less than a minute to play in the first. Mitch Barrington ’17 gave the Polar Bears a three-goal lead with a power play goal early in the second period before pushing the lead to four with his second soon after. Antunez and Camil Blanchet ’18 each tallied one goal in the third to give the Polar Bears a total of six goals.
Bowdoin gets this weekend off and will next face Hamilton at home on February 6 at 7 p.m.