This weekend the men’s hockey team (6-13-0) traveled to take on a pair of NESCAC foes, facing off against Tufts on Friday and Connecticut College on Saturday. Both matches ended in losses, severely damaging the team’s chance of making the NESCAC tournament with two weeks remaining in the regular season. In order to have a chance at the eighth and final spot, the Cardinals must win their games this weekend against Colby and Bowdoin.
On Friday in a virtual must-win game, the Cardinals took on Tufts, who currently sit at eighth-place team in the conference standings. The Jumbos came out strong in the match, scoring three goals in the first period on 13 shots, while Wesleyan came up short on all 10 of its attempts. In the second the two teams both scored once, Wesleyan’s goal coming from Sam Robinson ’10 off an assist from Anthony DePietto ’11. Going into the third the Jumbos had a 4-1 advantage, and quickly expanded that lead to 5-1, scoring in the first minute of the period. After falling behind by such a large margin, the Cardinals’ coaching staff decided to go for broke and pulled goalie Tim Archibald ’10 with almost 15 minutes remaining in the match in order to gain an extra skater. This led to three empty-net goals by the Jumbos, but also led to three goals by the Cardinals to come to the final score of 8-5. Wes scored the last three goals of the contest; Jeff Beck ’10 scored one off an assist from Woody Redpath ’10, while A.J. Ferraro ’12 scored two in six-on-four situations with the Cardinals on the power play.
On Saturday, the Cardinals traveled to New London to take on their second NESCAC opponent of the weekend. Connecticut College struck the first blow 2:54 into the match with a power-play tally, and followed that up 12 minutes later with another goal to bring its lead to 2-0. Ferraro halved the hosts’ lead with 1:09 remaining in the first with his third goal of the weekend, and Beck evened it up 5:39 into the second frame with his second goal of the season. The Camels got the last laugh, however, as they netted the go-ahead goal with 15 seconds left in the second. The final period was quiet on the scoring front, and the Cardinals, despite sending goaltender Glenn Stowell ’13 to the bench for the final 1:28, were unable to find the equalizer.
Wesleyan now sits in last place in the NESCAC standings, but with four games remaining, the team is very much alive in the race for the final NESCAC tournament spot. The puck drops at 7 p.m. Friday as the Cardinals hope to begin their playoff push agains Colby.
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