On Tuesday, the men’s hockey team faced off against NESCAC rival and traveling partner Trinity at Spurrier-Snyder Rink. After falling behind 4-1 the Cards made an impressive comeback in the third period, but the Bantams proved to have a slight edge and narrowly pulled out a 6-4 victory. After defeating nationally ranked Little Three rival Williams on Jan. 15, the team has lost four straight and dropped to an overall record of 5-10-0.

The Bantams came out strong in the opening two periods of the match, netting one goal in each to come to a lead of 2-0 entering into the third stanza. Wesleyan held a 25-19 edge in shots through the first two frames, but Trinity goalie Wesley Vesprini kept the Cardinals’ offense at bay. After two periods of low-scoring and defensive play, however, the third was a flurry of offensive action, with a total of eight goals scored by the two teams in the period. Tom Salah ’12 kicked things off for the Cardinals in the third, scoring at the 1:55 mark of the period off assists from Adam Kasier ’13 and team points leader John Guay ’13. The Bantams, however, quickly responded with two goals of their own to extend their lead to 4-1 with 11:25 remaining in the game.

Feeling the pressure of a three-goal deficit the Cardinals banded together, and in a span of three minutes the team netted three goals to tie the match at 4-4 with eight minutes to play. Starting off this scoring spree was Guay at the 9:26 mark, with assists going to Kaiser and Salah. Thirty seconds later, Salah scored his second goal of the night off a feed from Henry Coxe ’11 and George Russell ’13. With the score at 4-3 the Cardinals continued their relentless attack, and Don Kleckner ’13 netted a power-play taly at the 12:39 mark to tie the match. Wesleyan almost took a 5-4 late in the period, as a shot by Salah appeared to sneak between the left goalpost and Vesprini’s pad and ricochet right back out, but the officials allowed play to continue. Shortly after that, at the 17:15 mark, Trinity lit the lamp, going up 5-4 with three minutes left. This forced the Cardinals to pull goalie Glenn Stowell ’13 in the final minutes of the match, but a Wesleyan penalty with 1:58 remaining meant the Cardinals were playing at even strength with an open net. Trinity added an empty-netter with 57 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

The Cardinals host a league weekend starting on Friday with a visit from New England College, followed by a match against St. Anselm on Saturday. The puck will drop at 7 p.m. Friday