Men's hockey ousts Hamilton

Author: Peter Baumann

The Middlebury men's hockey team defeated the Hamilton College Continentals for the second time in as many weeks on Saturday, Feb. 28, taking the NESCAC quarterfinal by a score of 6-2. With the win, the Panthers advance to take on Williams College on March 6, while the host Amherst Lord Jeffs face defending champion Trinity College in the other semifinal.

The Panthers struck early on Saturday against the Continentals with Martin Drolet '12 firing the puck through Hamilton goaltender Ian Stearns' five-hole five minutes into the contest. Drolet was able to break in alone due to a fantastic play by Bryan Curran '11, who dug the puck out of his own corner and fired it up-ice to his teammate, who had slipped in behind the Hamilton defense.

The Continentals did not record their first shot until almost seven minutes into the contest, at which point Middlebury already led 2-0, but they made the most of it as Joe Buicko slammed home a rebound to cut the Middlebury lead to one.

Middlebury continued its torrid first period soon thereafter, though, with Ken Suchoski '11 scoring to bring the margin back up to two. The score would remain 3-1 through the end of the period. The Panther dominated the frame, out-shooting the Continentals 12-3.

Despite playing a somewhat lackluster second period, the Panthers were able to extend their lead to 4-1 after Jamie McKenna '09 twisted a Hamilton defender around while driving to the net and tapped home a perfect feed from Suchoski. Hamilton would later score to bring the margin back to two goals, but would never narrow the gap further. Third period tallies from Drolet - his team leading 18th of the year - and Nerback '12 provided the final margin.

The game was somewhat indicative of Middlebury's season, with the Panthers dominating play during the first and third periods while inexplicably easing up during the second.

"The second period was pretty bad," said McKenna. "We lost almost every puck, we had way too many turnovers