Middletown, Conn. - The visiting Trinity College Bantam men's ice hockey team dropped a 3-2 decision against the Wesleyan University Cardinals in the opening round of the William S. Spurrier Tournament this afternoon.  Trinity, ranked No. 13 in the nation, falls to 2-1 and will play the Connecticut College Camels in the consolation game tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Wesleyan.  The Cardinals will play the Amherst College Lord Jeffs, which won, 3-1, against the Camels in the other first round game at Wesleyan today.

Wesleyan led, 1-0, at 3:30 of the first when sophomore Geoff Mucha stuffed the puck home during a scramble in front for his first goal of the year.  Cardinal Brett Bandazian spotted Wesleyan a 2-1 lead at 1:58 of the second period, scoring off a rebound of a junior Henry Coxe slapshot which was saved by Trinity keeper senior Joe Hanson (Weymouth, Mass.).  Almost nine minutes later, Salah untied for the game for Wesleyan's third lead, following up his own shot in close and poking the puck into the net.  Salah and Bandazian both scored for the second time this year.

Trinity had knotted the score, 1-1, at 9:09 of the first period as junior Ben Shellington (Hanover, Mass.) scored a power-play goal from a sharp angle in close on the right.  Trinity again evened the count at 2-2 when freshman Zach Lombardi (Locust Valley, N.Y.) finished off a two-man breakaway with Trinity short-handed, combining with junior Egor Petrov (Nonokuznetsk, Russia) to set up his second goal of the campaign at 8:12 of the middle stanza.  Wesleyan keeper Matt Hadge, a freshman making his first appearance, posted 25 saves to pick up the win.  He got some help as the Bantams hit a pair of posts after the score stood 3-2 in Wesleyan's favor.  Hanson closed out the contest with 27 stops.

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