The men’s ice hockey team opened its 2009-10 campaign with a record of 1-3, suffering three losses to NESCAC teams, two of which came at the hands of defending NESCAC champion Amherst. The Cards lost their first two games of the season against Amherst and Hamilton, losing to the former 6-3 and to the latter 8-6. The team’s first victory came last weekend against NESCAC rival Trinity in the Spurrier Tournament, and with the win the Cardinals advanced to the finals and faced off against Amherst for the second time this season. The Lord Jeffs were once again up to the challenge, rolling to a 6-1 victory, and the Cards took home second place.

On Saturday, the Cardinals hosted Trinity for the annual Thanksgiving tournament featuring Wesleyan, Trinity, Amherst, and Conn. College. Trinity, which defeated both Amherst and Hamilton over its opening weekend, appeared to have all the advantages going into the game. However, the Cardinals came ready to defend their home rink, and what followed was a terrific display of hockey skills, with Wesleyan edging out the Bantams 3-2.

The Cardinals got off to a strong start with a goal from Geoff Mucha ’12, but the Bantams answered near the end of the first with a a power-play tally to tie the game at 1-1. In the second Wesleyan again scored the first blow with a goal from Brett Bandazian ’12 two minutes in, but Trinity answered again, evening the score with a short-handed goal at 8:12. Tom Salah ’12 lit the lamp two and a half minutes later, putting the Cardinals ahead for good. In the final period the match was a defensive battle, and Wesleyan goalie Matt Hadge ’13, in his first start in the red and black, stopped all eight shots that came his way, part of a 25-save performance in the contest, to seal the victory for the Cardinals.

On Sunday the Cardinals took on Little Three rival Amherst in the Spurrier Tournament finals. The game had a similar outcome to the first match against Amherst, and the Cardinals fell 6-1. Despite the lopsided score the Cardinals were statistically quite close to the Lord Jeffs; both had a 33 percent success rate on the man advantage, and in the game the Lord Jeffs only had one more shot on goal, firing 20 to Wesleyan’s 19—a stark contrast to the first game, in which Amherst held a 44-22 edge in shots. The Lord Jeffs scored three goals each in the first and third frames, but in the second the Cards were able to hold their own, and Salah scored Wesleyan’s only goal of the contest with 58 seconds remaining in the period.

The team returns to action this weekend against a pair of ECAC East opponents, Babson and UMass Boston. The puck drops against Babson on Friday at 7 p.m. in Spurrier/Snyder Rink, and the UMass match is at the same location at 3 p.m. on Saturday.