HARTFORD — The Middlebury College men’s hockey team dropped two road games this past weekend to two of the top three teams in the NESCAC standings. The Panthers (5-6-1, 3-4-1 NESCAC) return to action on Friday with a 7 p.m. non-conference game at Plattsburgh State.
On this past Saturday host Trinity blanked the Panthers, 4-0, scoring three times in the first period. The Bantams improved to 7-3-2, 3-2-1 NESCAC.
Trinity got first-period goals from Taggart Corriveau, Eric Benshadle and Liam Feeney, with Feeney’s coming on a power play. Ryan Pfeffer tallied 2:41 into the third period to complete the scoring.
Middlebury goalie Brian Ketchabaw finished with a season-high 39 saves, while Bantam netminder Jonah Capriotti stopped all 24 shots he faced. The Panthers failed to capitalize on seven power plays.
That came a day after host Wesleyan (5-3-1, 5-0-1 NESCAC) broke open a 1-0 game late in the second period in a 5-1 win over the Panthers.
Spencer Fox netted a rebound 1:36 into the second period to make it 1-0. Goals by Vincent Lima and Luke Babcock 1:17 apart late in the period made it 3-0.
Panther Kamil Tkaczuk converted a wraparound 1:23 into the third period, but a Tyler Kobryn rebound goal 36 seconds later stalled any potential Middlebury momentum, and the Cardinals added an empty netter. Cardinal goalie Tim Sestak made 34 saves, while Adam Wisco (25 stops in 53:56) and Ketchabaw (four saves in 5:17) shared time for Middlebury.