Middletown, Conn. - Sophomore forward Sean McCarthy
(Duxbury, Mass.) scored the game-winning goal with 2:45
left in a wild third period, as the visiting Trinity College
Bantams managed a 6-4 win over the Wesleyan University Cardinals in
New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) men's ice
hockey action this evening. Trinity improves to 9-5-2 overall
and 6-3-2 in the NESCAC, while the Cardinals fall to 5-10 overall
and 2-9 in the league with their fourth loss in a row.
Trinity avenges a 3-2 loss at Wesleyan in the Cardinals'
Thanksgiving Tournament in November.
McCarthy blasted the clinching goal from just outside the right
face-off circle, converting on assists by junior defensemen
Regnars Alksnis (Talsi, Latvia) and Derek
Sandberg (St. Lazare, Quebec). Each team scored four
times in the final frame, as Wesleyan came back from a 4-1 deficit
with three unanswered goals in a 3:13 span. McCarthy finally
doused the Cardinal rally and junior forward Adam Houli
(Howell, N.J.) tallied his second goal and his third point
of the game with an empty-netter in the final minute.
Trinity scored once in each of the first two periods and Bantam
junior goalie Wesley Vesprini (Lexington, Mass.)
kept the Cardinals off the board for the first 41:55 of the game.
Trinity freshman forward Chris Menard (Burlington,
Mass.) opened the scoring 3:07 into the contest with the
first of his two goals and his four points in the game, and Houli
scored on a pass from the left wing by Alksnis midway through the
second period. Wesleyan hit two posts in the first period and
one in the second, while Vesprini turned away 25 Cardinal shots in
the first two stanzas.
Sophomore forward Tom Salah (Gloucester, Mass.)
broke the Cardinal scoring drought early in the fourth period,
bringing the puck around the left of the Bantam defense and
muscling it over the line. Bantam freshman forward
Jordan So (Toronto, Ontario) answered with a goal
from the right wing and classmate Chris Menard flipped the puck
over the shoulder of Wesleyan freshman netminder Glenn
Stowell (Hadley, Mass.) shortly after to give Trinity a
4-1 lead with 11:25 to play in regulation. Freshman forward
John Guay (North Scituate, R.I.) and Salah started
the Wesleyan comeback with goals 28 seconds apart, and freshman
forward Don Kleckner (Alpharetta, Ga.) netted the
game-tying tally on a redirect at 12:39 of the third. Each
team had shots that hit the post late in the final period before
McCarthy broke the stalemate. Vesprini finished with 31 saves
and Stowell totaled 25.
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