c/o John Mrakovcich
This past weekend, the men’s hockey team snapped their five-game losing streak in the conference (six games overall). Their back-to-back wins over Hamilton College and Little Three rival Amherst College increased their record to 7–8–2 (6–4–2 in NESCAC play).
Coming into these two games the team had been struggling offensively, having scored just six goals total in their five previous NESCAC games. However, the Cards found a spark against the Continentals, winning by a score of 3–1. The Red and Black got on the board first as Emmet Powell ’23 scored his fifth goal of the season to give the Cards a 1–0 advantage. The Cardinals doubled the advantage just three minutes later as Uri Lurie ’24 scored the first goal of his career. The Cards then added a third goal thirty seconds after Lurie’s when Owen Sweet ’25 scored with just three and half minutes to go in the period. After Wesleyan’s offensive outburst in the first period, neither team scored again until the third period, when Hamilton was finally able to cut Wesleyan’s lead to 3–1. Following the goal, the Red and Black shut down the Continentals’ offensive attack and were able to close out the victory. On the stat sheet, the Cards outshot Hamilton 35–29 and goaltender Marc Smith ’24 made 28 saves.
Following the win the Cards then took on Amherst, who they defeated 3–2 in comeback fashion. Against the Mammoths Wesleyan fell behind 2–0 after the first period. However, they responded with a goal in the second period from Kyle Anderson ’24 and cut the lead in half heading into the final period. In the third period the Cards tied the game up with Powell’s sixth goal of the season just over seven minutes in, then took the lead three minutes later as Danny Sorabella ’22 scored his first goal of the season. The Red and Black’s defense kept Amherst off the board for the rest of the game and secured the season sweep over the Mammoths. For the game, Wesleyan outshot Amherst 27–22 and Smith stopped 20 shots in goal.
Overall, Coach Chris Potter was pleased with the team’s performance.
“We have been playing better,” Potter said. “We continue to play with more detail to our game. I think we have improved our play away from the puck, which has helped our offense.”
Potter highlighted the team’s increased attention to detail in all facets of the game as the main key to their victories over the weekend.
“I think the number one key was the details in our game,” Potter said. “We talked a lot about execution and how important it is to create scoring chances. Every game is close in our league so it really puts an emphasis on ‘everything you do matters.’”
Next up, the Cards hit the road to take on Williams before heading up to Middlebury to take on the Panthers. Going forward, the Red and Black hope to continue their strong play as they look to sweep the season series with Middlebury and even it up against Williams, who they lost to 6–1 in January. Potter is optimistic that the two wins last weekend will help the team’s belief that they can play and win any game in the future as they get closer to the playoffs.
“I hope the two wins on the road on that trip will bring confidence to our team,” Potter said. “Being down 2–0 to Amherst on the road and battling back to win 3–2 was a good testament to something we always talk about as a team in that you can never be too high about yourself in a game and, in the same vein, never too low. I think our discipline, intensity, and execution need to be improving every week so we are ready for the playoffs, where you may not have an opportunity to fix the mistakes the next day.”
David Gottlieb can be reached at dgottlieb@wesleyan.edu