An undefeated weekend that included victories over NESCAC rivals Tufts and Connecticut College by scores of 6-3 and 3-2, respectively, has vaulted the men’s hockey team into sole possession of first place in the conference with a 9-3-3 record.

The two Cardinal victories, coupled with two losses by Amherst, put Wesleyan in first place in the NESCAC for the first time ever in the conference’s short history, which dates back to 1999.

“Our success is really a direct result of everyone doing their role and refusing to quit,” said co-captain Ryan Hendrickson ’07. “As is the case in every season, teams face adversity and it’s how you respond to that adversity that determines where you end up at the end of the year. We’re a team that doesn’t stop playing until the final buzzer. We may be down by a goal late in the game, or we may take a penalty at a bad time, but with this team it doesn’t matter. We have confidence in each other.”

In a high-scoring affair on Friday night, Wesleyan jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with first period tallies from Scott Burns ’09 and Woody Redpath ’10. After Tufts tied the score at two early in the second, the Wesleyan offense reversed the momentum once again.

J.J. Evans ’09 and Will Bennett ’07 scored just a minute apart from eachother to put the Cards back up by two. Hendrickson added to the score in the third period and Evans scored his second of the game to further pad the lead. Tufts added a late goal to make the final score 6-3.

Even though Tufts entered the game with only two conference wins, the Cards refused to take their foe lightly.

“We try not to focus on who our opponent is each week,” Bennett said after the Tufts victory. “Instead, we focus on playing the best team hockey we can and limiting costly mental mistakes. We know we can beat anybody if we play our game.”

The following afternoon, Connecticut College visited the Cards. With less than two minutes remaining in the first period, Wesleyan struck first with David Layne ’10 scoring his 11th goal of the season, which leads all NESCAC freshmen, with assists from Bennett and Evans. The Camels fought back, however, and used two second period goals to lead the Cardinals 2-1 after two periods of play.

After an illegal-contact-to-the-head penalty early in the second period, the Cards went on the power play and knotted the score at two. Layne notched his second goal of the game with assists from Bennett and Dallas Bossort ’09 just 2:42 into the third period.

The Cards then pounced on the chance to take over the NESCAC lead in front of their home fans, with Bennett scoring his 10th goal of the season with 5:47 remaining in the game, off an assist from Brenton Stafford ’08.

Goaltender Mike Palladino ’09 and the defense were able to hold the Camels scoreless for the rest of the game despite two power play chances for the opponent. On the day, Palladino stopped 30 shots and remains atop the NESCAC in a number of statistical categories. He is first in goals against average, allowing only 1.82 per game, and also tops in save percentage, stopping 93 percent of the shots he faces.

“Knowing that the top spot in the NESCAC would be up for grabs this weekend, our team showed a lot of grit and determination in the games against Tufts and Conn,” said Evans, who contributed four points (two goals, two assists) on the weekend. “We are a very tough team to beat in front of our home crowd, and it showed with our comeback in the third on Saturday.”

Bennett leads the NESCAC in scoring with 32 points (10 goals and 22 assists) and is just four points shy of 100 for his career. Since 1995-1996 when the Cards moved from the ECAC South to the NESCAC, only two other Wesleyan players have surpassed the 100-point plateau for their careers- Steve Cucinatti ’01 (130) and Jon Blanchard ’03 (103).

In the final weekend of NESCAC league play, the Cards will face two of the teams chasing them for the top spot. Wesleyan will travel to Maine to face Colby on Friday evening and then Bowdoin the following afternoon, with a chance to capture the regular season NESCAC title for the first time in team history.