With two decisive victories last weekend, the men’s hockey team clinched the eighth and final playoff spot in the NESCAC tournament. Competing against Tufts for the spot and needing to pick up one point, the Cards took care of business. After rolling over Skidmore College Friday night by a score of 5-2, Wesleyan made sure its season continued with a 7-1 blowout of Castleton State on Saturday afternoon.

Yielding only 10 goals in the team’s past seven games, goaltender Dave Scardella’s ’07 re-entry into the starting lineup following an early season injury brought the Cards to the postseason for the first time since the 1999-2000 season and only the second time in the team’s history. At the end of the regular season, Scardella leads all NESCAC goaltenders in save percentage (95.7) and goals against average (1.34 per game).

“Our team has been in every game this season, but early on, we were losing the close games,” Scardella said. “Lately, we’ve been able to find a way to win or tie those games, which has earned us a playoff spot.”

With the eighth seed in the tournament, the Cards must travel to top-seeded Middlebury (20-2-2 overall and 16-2-1 in the NESCAC) this Saturday for the first round of the NESCAC tourney. The Panthers have won the conference tournament that past two seasons, so the Cards will have a tough task ahead of them.

“We’re playing a great team on Saturday, but it’s one game and anything can happen,” Scardella said. “Making the playoffs was a huge step for us and now we’ve got some momentum and confidence going into this weekend.”

Friday night, the Cards started slowly, falling behind 2-1 at the end of the first period. The deficit did not take long to overcome. Will Bennett ’07 scored the tying goal on a power play just 3:01 into the second period, assisted by Scott Burns ’09.

Eight minutes later, Ryan Hendrickson ’07 scored the game winner, with assists coming from Bennett and Alex Shklyarevsky ’08. Later in the period Derek Davidson ’08 extended the lead with a goal of his own. Bennett added another score in the third period to make the final score 5-2 in favor of the Cards. Scardella made 24 saves in the game, including 16 in the third period to protect the lead and secure the victory. Bennett led the offense with two goals and an assist.

With a Tufts loss the same night, Wesleyan controlled its own destiny going into Saturday’s season finale. By the end of the first period, things looked bright for the Cardinals. First period goals by Burns, John Wierzba ’09 and Bennett made the score 3-0 after 20 minutes of play.

The offense kept pouring it on, and by the end of the game, the Cards had scored seven goals on 32 shots. Scardella got his fourth victory of the season, allowing just two goals on 27 shots. Davidson led the Cards with two goals and an assist in the game.

In their NESCAC playoff game, the Cards will look to gain revenge from an earlier loss to Middlebury during the regular season. In that meeting, Middlebury handled the Cards 3-1 after jumping out to a three-goal lead in the first period. The Cards hope this game will yield different results, as they come into the tournament with a high level of confidence.

Despite finishing the season with a sub-.500 record, the Cards outscored their opponents during the regular season 55-54 and are second to Middlebury in average goals allowed per game.

Wesleyan’s first round game is this Saturday at 4 p.m. at Middlebury College.