MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury College men’s hockey team split two NESCAC home games this past weekend, including picking up the Panthers’ first win of the season on Saturday.
Middlebury (1-13-2, 1-9-0) will play league road games at Connecticut College on Friday and at Tufts on Saturday.
On this past Saturday, Middlebury scored four goals in the second period, three on the power play, as the Panthers defeated visiting Bowdoin, 5-1. Bowdoin dropped to 7-10-0, 4-8-0 in NESCAC play.
After a scoreless first period, the Panthers opened scoring on a power play 1:27 into the second period: Danny Jacobs’ centering pass went in off Vincent Gisonti and into the Bowdoin net. The hosts took advantage of another man-up opportunity 10 minutes later when Trevor Turnbull cut through the slot and tipped in a pass from Travis Stephens for a 2-0 lead.
Bowdoin countered 1:34 later on a goal by Thomas Dunleavy, who netted the rebound of his own shot at 12:53. The Panthers got the goal back 41 seconds later, when Kamil Tkaczuk buried a rebound from the bottom of the right circle. Middlebury converted on another power play with 3:41 left in the period: Dawson wristed a shot from the point that found its way through traffic. Gisonti capped the scoring with 21.4 seconds left in the third.
Panther goalie Stephen Klein made 32 saves, while Bowdoin’s Nathan Colannino had 20. Middlebury cashed in on three of five power plays and killed all three Bowdoin man-up chances.
On Friday, visiting Colby (7-4-4, 6-3-3) hung on for a 4-3 win over Middlebury, which fell behind by 4-0 before scoring three times in the third period.
Colby got a first-period power-play goal from Devin Albert, and then scored three times in the second, with Geoff Sullivan, Phil Klitirinos and Michael Rudolf finding the net.
The Panthers broke through for a power-play goal at 6:47 of the third. Brendan Dawson wristed a shot in from the high slot that found its way through traffic for his first collegiate goal. Mitchell Allen made it 4-2 at 11:17, skating up the left wing and snapping a shot in from the circle. At 15:28 the Panthers came closer with another power-play tally: Trevor Turnbull finished crisp passes from Allen and Tkaczuk.
The Panthers had two good chances in the final minute with Klein out of the net for an extra attacker, but Colby goalie Sean Lawrence (27 saves) denied Allen and Mark McLellan. Klein finished with 29 saves for the Panthers.