CLINTON, N.Y. — The Middlebury College men’s hockey team split two road games this past weekend and will enter the NESCAC postseason with the No. 7 seed and a 7-8-3 league record, 10-11-3 overall.
The Panthers are set to play at No. 2 Amherst (18-4-2, 14-4 NESCAC) this Saturday at 1 p.m. in a league quarterfinal. The Jeffs are ranked No. 10 among NCAA Division III teams and defeated the Panthers this past Friday, 4-0. The NESCAC final four will be played the following weekend and hosted by the highest remaining seed.
On this past Saturday, Middlebury ended its regular season with a 3-1 win at Hamilton as Brendan McGovern earned the hat trick with three rebound goals.
He opened the scoring with 6:40 left in the first, poking the puck inside the near post after Hamilton goalie Zach Arnold (29 saves) had stopped a long shot by Terrance Goguen.
The Continentals tied the game 6:10 into the second on Robbie Murden’s 14th goal of the year. McGovern netted rebounds of shots by Evan Neugold and Jake Charles later in the period to snap the tie and add an insurance goal.
Liam Moorfield-Yee earned the win in goal for Middlebury, stopping 10 of the 11 shots he faced. Mike Peters, who came into the game after McGovern’s second goal, turned aside 16 shots in 28:37.
On Friday, Amherst goalie Danny Vitale notched 25 saves to secure the victory, and Jeff forward David White picked up his second hat trick of the season.
Middlebury goalie Stephen Klein surrendered three goals and made 16 saves in 41:14, Mike Peters played the final 18:46 and made eight stops and allowed one goal.