Men’s hockey improves on a lackluster start to season

After suffering the program’s first defeat in school history to Wesleyan three weekends ago, the men’s hockey team has rebounded onto the winning track. Going 5-1-1 in its last seven contests, the Panthers have now soared to a 9-6-4 record on the season, placing them second in the NESCAC (7-4-3 in conference) and well within cracking the Division III top-15 poll.

“The Wesleyan loss at home was certainly a wake-up call for our team. Up until that point in the season, we had really not played well at all in games or practices,” said assistant Coach John Dawson. “It took us a while to figure out that last year has no impact on games this year, and only through hard work and consistent preparation were we going to get the results.”

After the loss to Wesleyan, the Panthers defeated New England College and St. Anselm at home before travelling to Maine to add two NESCAC victories against Bowdoin and Colby. A close loss at #12 Plattsburgh then set up the Panthers for a showdown with two Vermont opponents this past weekend.

The team travelled to face a pair of perennial in-state rivals in #4 ranked Norwich on Friday and St. Michael’s College on Saturday. Last season, the Cadets of Norwich handed Middlebury a 3-1 loss on home ice, which gave the Panthers extra incentive to get back in the win column of this historic rivalry.

“That game over there was a great college hockey game. The rink was jam packed and the atmosphere in the building was fantastic,” said Dawson. While the team was unable to push past Norwich for the victory in front of a capacity crowd at Kreitzberg Arena, a 4-4 tie with the Cadets on the road was far from failure.

Norwich opened the scoring at the 13-minute mark of the first period with Kyle Thomas beating Middlebury’s John Yancheck ’12. Middlebury answered on the power play five minutes later, with Charlie Strauss ’12 netting his ninth of the season with an assist from Michael Longo ’14.

J.D. Vermette ‘14 scored twice in forty seconds for the Panthers in the second period’s fifth minute to give the Panthers a two-goal lead, with assists from Strauss, Louis Belisle ’14, and Chris Steele ’13. However, Thomas answered for Norwich almost a minute after, and later added his hat trick goal on a Cadet power play at the 19-minute mark to tie the game at three.

In the third, Norwich pulled ahead 4-3 around four minutes in. Down late in the third, Ben Wiggins ‘14 then tallied his first goal of the season for Middlebury, with an assist from Vermette, with seven minutes left in regulation. Unable to break the deadlock in regulation or OT, the teams skated to a tie, with goalie Yancheck pushing his record to 6-1-3 on the season.

“We were disappointed in the tie because we had chances to win, but we were pleased with our overall effort level and how we dealt with some of the adversity,” said Dawson.

The Panthers matchup with St. Michael’s proved to be less of a test for the squad, although St. Michael’s hung around until early in the third period despite the Panthers outshooting them 42-13.

The Panthers jumped out to an early lead when Wiggins, assisted by Charles Nerbak ’12, picked up where he left off by scoring 2:14 into the game. Strauss then reached the ten-goal milestone eight minutes later on a breakaway. St. Michael’s pushed the game to 2-1 in the fifteenth minute before Martin Drolet ’12 buried a third-chance rebound for his ninth of the year.

St. Michael’s added two goals in the second to tie the game at 3-3, prompting the switch of goaltenders from Yancheck to Nick BonDurant ’14. Middlebury buried the Knights in the third period with a goal from Drolet a mere eight seconds into the frame. Mathieu Dubuc ’13, assisted by Strauss and Tucker Donahoe ’12, scored his fifth of the year at 12:02 to solidify the final at 5-3. Bondurant’s record in goal now stands at 3-4-1.
The Panthers will open a four game home stand to end the regular season starting with Williams and UMASS-Boston this week, before the NESCAC tournament begins February.