Following last year’s disappointing season, in which the Cardinals went 5–18–1 overall and 3–14–1 in conference, the team entered their 2024–25 campaign looking to right some wrongs.

“Last year it felt like we were really close to getting over the hump and finishing games,” forward Ethan “Davey” Davidson ’26 said. “So we were really looking forward to the year. Especially all the juniors and seniors—we were excited to see how the team would be as all of us got bigger roles.”

Another unusual challenge the Cardinals faced this season was the prospect of having 14 new players—13 first-years and one sophomore transfer student–on their roster, the most first-years of any team since the 2004–05 season. That meant almost half the team was brand new to the program at the start of the year. But fortunately, the young Cardinals were more than up to the task. 

“It’s always tough when [there are] that many new people, just as far as meshing as a team,” captain and forward Owen Sweet ’25 said. “But it’s kind of exciting having 14 new faces. I do think having more younger kids in the locker room, it does take a little more time for things to stick. But guys are starting to learn from each other, so I don’t think it was harder.”

The season commenced on Friday, Nov. 15 with a home matchup against Tufts. The Jumbos got off to a hot start, scoring four unanswered goals to open the game. The Cards finally responded with a goal of their own; forward Hayden “Hanesy” Hanes ’27 scored halfway through the second, assisted by Davidson and Sweet. The Jumbos again found the back of the net seven minutes into the third, extending their lead to 1–5. But the Cards fought back, with two power-play goals from Connor “Sudsy” Sutherland ’27, assisted by Davidson, and captain and defenseman Patrick Morrissey ’25. Ultimately, though, it was not enough to make up the deficit, and the game ended in a 3–5 loss for the Cards. 

The next day the Red and Black suffered another loss, this time to Conn. College, as the Camels fired off three quick goals in the first period to take a commanding lead. Sweet scored one for Wes at the end of the second assisted by captain and defenseman Jack “Kaner” Kane ’25 and Davidson but the Cards could not find the back of the net again. The game concluded with a final score of 1–4.

Despite the outcome, the team still had positive takeaways from their first weekend of competition. 

“I think the first weekend is always a little bit tough, knowing that we’ve only been skating with our coach for about four weeks with no preseason games at all,” Morrissey said. “So it was a bit of an experiment, and obviously we didn’t get the results we wanted, but there were a lot of positives to take from it. We got to get a lot of new guys in both games and try some things out. We saw guys that had good potential.”

The next weekend, the Cardinals had their first road trip of the year as they headed up to Clinton, N.Y. to face Hamilton on Saturday, Nov. 23. The game saw lots of back-and-forth action throughout the first two periods, with two goals by Hanes and one from Davidson, reaching a 3–3 tie by the second intermission. But the Continentals came out hot in the final period and scored three goals unanswered to put the game away and secure a 3–6 victory.

Undeterred by the previous night’s results, the Cardinals entered their Sunday matchup against Amherst with renewed vigor. Though the Mammoths struck first with a goal nine minutes into the game, the Cards responded efficiently with a power-play goal by Davidson a minute later. The second period was a defensive battle, with neither team managing to net another goal. But with less than ten minutes remaining in the third, forward Danny Judge ’26 fired a shot to retake the Cardinals’ lead. Forward Tanner Kontir ’27 tacked on another goal with 25 seconds remaining, putting the game away and giving the Cards their first win of the season.

“The Amherst game was definitely huge, because that game we did a really good job playing throughout the whole game instead of playing good hockey for parts of the game,” Haynes said. “So I think that was a big step as a group.”

The Cards then faced a series of non-conference matchups against Albertus Magnus College, Suffolk University, and Saint Michael’s College, all of which resulted in losses (1–2 OT, 2–4, 0–3). Fortunately, those results did not derail the Cardinals’ season; they then had an invaluable month-long break from competition.

“We didn’t finish our first third of the season as well as we would have liked,” Sweet said. “So it was a chance for everyone to take some time off, reset, and enjoy the holiday season. And when you come back from break, you’re fresh and ready to go.”

In their first game back on Friday, Jan. 3, the Cards jumped back into action with another non-conference matchup versus Salve Regina University. OT ended with a 2–2 tie, which went into a shootout that the Cards lost 1–2. The next day, they had another 2–2 OT tie against SUNY Plattsburgh, in which they also lost the shootout 1–2. 

Even though the weekend did not yield any wins, Morrissey still highlighted these matchups as an important turning point for the season.  

“Those are two of the better teams in all of Division III, so we knew that they were going to play us really hard,” Morrissey said. “We felt that we put up good efforts against both of them, and probably should have at least won one. It’s tough once you get into the shootout. It’s kind of like anything can happen there, and the shootout is not something we’ve overly emphasized. So we wish we could have taken those games, but I think just from the out-of-conference nature of them, we were really pleased with how we competed and started building towards having a better second half [of the season].”

The next weekend, the Cardinals returned to the road with NESCAC matchups versus Williams and Middlebury. In their Friday, Jan. 10 night game versus the Ephs, the Cards struck first with a goal by Davidson ten minutes into the game, but the Purple Cows came back with three goals of their own to take a 3–1 lead four minutes into the third. Judge tacked on another goal with nine minutes to go and cut the Ephs’ lead to one. Unfortunately, the Cardinals were unable to overcome the deficit. Williams secured a 2–4 victory over the Cards.

On Saturday, Jan. 11, the Cards then trekked up to Vermont to take on the Panthers. Once again, the Red and Black struck first with a Davidson goal ten minutes into the game, which was followed up by another by Sutherland two minutes later. At the top of the second, the Panthers scored one of their own, to which Hanes responded to secure a 3–1 lead. But the Panthers would not be held back for long, as they proceeded to go on a four-goal run to pull ahead 3–5. Haynes added another with less than five minutes to go in regulation. But the Cards were not able to find the back of the net again, and the drought resulted in a 4–5 loss for the Red and Black.

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the Cards returned home for their final non-conference game of the season to face no. 10 nationally ranked Endicott College, who the Cards had never beaten before in program history. The Gulls took an early lead with a goal eight minutes into the game and then tacked on another goal 15 minutes into the second to take a 2–0 lead. But the Cards would not go quietly and proceeded to shut the Gulls out for the entire third period, netting three goals of their own from forward Zach Stimeling ’27, Davidson, and Hanes.

Hanes highlighted the team’s perseverance as a key element for their success in the game.

“We were just really persistent throughout the game, and we didn’t let the two-goal deficit drag us down too much,” Hanes said. “I think Endicott was probably a little bit surprised with how well we played being down two goals and that’s something we’ve gotten a lot better at throughout the season.”

On Friday, Jan. 18 the Cards returned to the ’CAC to host Colby. At the end of regulation, the score was tied up 2–2, with both Cardinal goals coming from Sutherland. This sent the game into overtime, but neither team managed to score, forcing a shootout which the Mules ultimately won 2–3.  

The next day, the Cards faced another Maine rival with their Bowdoin matchup. The Polar Bears came out guns blazing and scored four goals within the first 14 minutes of play. The Cards responded with a three-goal run, with scores by Hanes, forward Andrew Haxton ’28, and Davidson to cut the Bowdoin lead to 3–4. Neither team scored throughout the third period until the Polar Bears found the back of the next with just 45 seconds remaining in regulation to nab a 3–5 victory.

With that, the Cardinals finished their first round of NESCAC play–except for Trinity, whom they play in in the final weekend of the regular season–and now began their second cycle through all the teams, starting with Tufts and Conn. College.

On Friday, Jan. 24, in search of revenge, the Red and Black took on the Jumbos. The Cards took an early lead with a goal from forward Jack Marottolo ’26 11 minutes into the game. Neither team tacked on any points through the entire second and most of the third periods until Sweet scored with 56 seconds remaining in regulation to secure the first NESCAC win for the Cards of 2025. The game also marked the team’s first shutout of the season, as well as the first in the career of rookie goalie Patrick McDevitt ’28, who posted 49 saves on the day.

“We knew we needed to start winning games at a consistent level to move up in the rankings,” Davidson said. “And we were able to score on the power play pretty early, which gave us a boost, and then our goalie played us so well, and completely shut it down for us, which was massive. It was similar to Endicott, where we played a pretty mature ending, and we were able to actually close the game out, which was a huge positive.”

Looking to capitalize on their momentum, the Cardinals faced their Saturday matchup against the Camels with total determination. Back-to-back Haxton goals saw the Red and Black assume an early lead. But Camels began to encroach with a score of their own at the end of the first. The teams traded goals throughout the second period, with Wes goals by Sweet and defenseman Troy Maldonado ’28. The Camels added on another goal at the top of the third to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 4–3. But with two minutes to go, the Cardinals sealed their victory with back-to-back empty netters from Sweet and Stimeling to make the final score 6–3.

“Going into that third period, up 4–2 and they score an early power play goal, it would have been easy to give them a bit more of the momentum,” Morrissey said. “But our mindset was that we were going to take the pressure to them. And we felt like we really dominated most of that third period. They had a push at the end, but we had a lot of guys make hard plays, block some shots and we were able to get rewarded with those two empty net goals to seal it. But again, we just felt that our whole team…bought into doing whatever it takes to win that game.”

This weekend, the Cardinals return home for a rematch against no. 8 nationally ranked Hamilton and Amherst and hope to capitalize on the success of last weekend’s sweep. 

“We’re really excited to continue to prove that we’re a different team, and that we’ve gotten better over the course of the year, and using the confidence from last weekend as well,” Sweet said. “We can win games, and it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing. As long as we bring our game, we know we can win. We can win any game.”

Erin Byerly can be reached at ebyerly@wesleyan.edu.