MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury College men’s hockey coach Bill Beaney became just the 12th coach in NCAA history to earn 600 career wins when his Panthers defeated visiting Wesleyan on Saturday, 3-0.
Beaney’s teams’ mark of 600-257-59 over his 35-year career represents the most wins for an NCAA Division III mentor. Most of those victories have come during his 28 years at the helm of the Panthers, during which his teams have compiled a 514-181-51 record.
Beaney, 63, graduated from UNH in 1973 and started his coaching career at New England College, where he amassed a record of 78-67-5 between 1978 and 1984.
This past Saturday, the Panthers improved to 8-9-3, 5-6-3 in NESCAC play, with the shutout Wesleyan (2-18-0, 1-13-0 NESCAC) in Kenyon Arena.
Evan Neugold got the Panthers on the board at 16:35 of the opening period when he lifted a shot over Cardinal goalie Dawson Sprigings off a Greg Conrad rebound at 16:35.
During the Panthers’ lone power play of the game, Derek Pimentel doubled the Middlebury advantage 2:22 into the second period. Pimentel tapped in a bouncing puck on a rebound of Cameron Romoff’s shot from the right point.
At 16:46, Mike Najjar gave the Panthers a three-goal lead by sticking home a shot off Ronald Fishman’s drop pass in the slot. Wesleyan’s best scoring chance came in the final seconds when James Kline came racing down the left side, but Panther goalie Stephen Klein corralled his quick wrister.
Middlebury outshot Wesleyan, 37-13. Klein picked up his second career shutout by stopping all 13 attempts, while Sprigings was credited with 34 stops.
On the day before, Trinity, ranked No. 4 in NCAA Division III denied Middlebury, 2-1 in overtime, despite the Panthers’ 34-15 advantage in shots on goal. The Bantams improved to 17-2-1, 12-1-1 NESCAC.
Trinity found the back of the net with 50 seconds left in the first period, when Elie Vered converted Conor Covney’s feed from behind the net.
Middlebury outshot Trinity, 11-7, in the scoreless second period, and then outshot the Bantams, 18-2, in the third and tied the game with just 4 seconds to go with Klein pulled for an extra skater. Neugold picked up a rebound of Fishman’s shot from the right point and circled the net to score on a wraparound.
But the Bantams scored on the only shot of overtime, 47 seconds in, when Jackson Brewer converted the rebound of a Michael Flynn shot.
Bantam goalie Nathaniel Heilbron made 33 saves, while Klein made 13 stops.