With a 2-2 tie against the 11th-ranked nationally Castleton St. Spartans on Saturday afternoon, the Wesleyan men’s hockey team secured the fourth seed in the NESCAC tournament and a visit from Little Three rival Amherst College in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.

The Cards, along with four other teams, entered the weekend with a shot at the top seed in the tournament. After Friday night’s 5-3 defeat at the hands of Skidmore College, however, the Cardinals needed a strong showing against Castleton St. on Saturday to put them in good position for the postseason.

“It’s obviously disappointing to go winless in our final four games after being in first place just two weeks ago,” said co-captain Will Bennett ’07. “The regular season is over though, and we accomplished our goal of hosting a playoff game. It’s a new season now, and everyone on this team knows we can beat anybody on any given day.”

Just two weeks ago, Wesleyan surged into first place with impressive victories over Tufts and Connecticut College. After losing two games in Maine last week to Colby and Bowdoin, the Cards dropped back into the middle of one of the closest regular season NESCAC races ever.

After falling behind in the first period on Friday night, Wesleyan’s offense came out on fire in the second period, with three goals in the first five minutes. Bennett scored his 11th on the power play to open up the scoring with an assist from Brenton Stafford ’08. Just 36 seconds later, the Cards’ other captain, Ryan Hendrickson ’07, scored his sixth of the year with assists from Ryan Zemel ’10 and Taylor Evans ’07.

Wesleyan quickly went back on the power play, and David Layne ’10 scored his 13th of the year, which leads all NESCAC rookies, with assists from Evans and Bennett.

Skidmore cut the lead in half with a power play goal toward the end of the second period after J.J. Evans ’09 received a tripping penalty. The 3-2 lead stood until 10:58 of the third when Skidmore’s Scott Schaub tied it at three following a breakdown on Wesleyan’s defensive end.

Unfortunately, this would happen again just 2:29 later when Skidmore took the lead at 4-3. The Thoroughbreds added an empty-netter and the final score was 5-3 in favor of the visitors. Shocked and disappointed, the Cards had to quickly regroup for their game the next day.

“It was tough to lose Friday considering we dominated for the most part of the game,” Hendrickson said. “We generated great chances all game, but they were able to capitalize on a few bad defensive breakdowns. If we are going to win in the postseason, we are going to have to limit our mistakes and cannot continue to give up breakaways and two-on-ones.”

Castleton St. came to Snyder-Spurrier Rink on Saturday afternoon, and the Cards were focused on limiting their mistakes and proving once again that they could skate with a nationally ranked opponent.

After a scoreless first period, Woody Redpath ’10 took a nice pass from Evans and fired it into the top corner just 19 seconds into the second period to give the Cards a 1-0 lead. After an Ed Klein ’08 interference penalty, the Spartans tied the game at one at 5:05 into the second period. Sam Robinson ’10 broke the tie at 14:02 of the period with a backhander in the slot off assists from Mike Barbera ’07 and Evans.

The lead was short-lived, as the Spartans again tied the game at 7:18 of the third period with a power play goal from Steve Culberston. That was how the game ended, as neither team was able to score for the remainder of the third period or in the five-minute overtime.

Wesleyan got the best chance with a power play for the final 30 seconds of OT, but was unable to break the deadlock.

“While a tie is never fully satisfying, even against a nationally ranked team, Saturday’s tie clinched a home ice playoff spot, so we were all happy to have reached that goal,” Hendrickson said.

Wesleyan will host its first ever NESCAC tournament game this Saturday at 3 p.m. against fifth-seeded Amherst. The two teams met in the season opener, with the Lord Jeffs winning in a shootout 5-4.

That was over three months ago, and Wesleyan is a much improved since then. With a 7-2-2 record at home this season, the Cards seem to have the edge going into Saturday’s showdown against their heated rival.