Hartford, Conn. – Middlebury junior Laura Pinsent (Labrador City, Newfoundland) made 34 saves in goal to lead the visiting Middlebury College Panthers to a 4-1 win over the Trinity College Bantams in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) women's ice hockey action this afternoon at Williams Rink in the Koeppel Community Sports Center. The loss follows a 1-1 tie with the Panthers yesterday and is the first defeat of the season for Trinity, which falls to 2-1-2 overall and 1-1-2 in the NESCAC.  The No. 4-ranked Panthers improve to 4-1-1 overall and 3-0-1 in the league. 

Click here for a short clip of action from today's game.

Middlebury sophomore MacKenzie Martin (Wilmette, Ill.) scored just 1:15 into the game to jumpstart a three-goal period for the Panthers, putting Trinity in too deep a hole to recover.  Classmate Hannah Bielawski (Evanston, Ill.) scored a goal and an assist in the game, bringing her team-leading total to five goals in Middlebury's first six games. 

Pinsent did her best impression of a wall all afternoon.  She was convincing, coming up with key stops in the first and second period to prevent Trinity from closing the gap, as the Panther forwards helped distance themselves in a high-action game.  With the score at 1-1 in Middlebury's favor, Trinity senior Rebecca Rosen (Syosset, N.Y.) made an athletic move in a showdown with Pinsent in a first period attempt to tie the game, but Pinsent denied the wrister before going on to make big stops against junior Whitney Colbert (Ithica, N.Y.), first-year Emma Tani (Orange, Calif.), and sophomore Lucy Robinson (Toronto, Canada) on a one-timer attempt late in the period.

Trinity gained hope late in the second period when Rosen beat Pinsent for Trinity's first goal, but Pinsent continued to frustrate the Bantams, as Tani took another try at the net with just over a minute remaining in the period, but missed wide on a breakaway attempt to bury the puck in the corner.  Trinity outshot Middlebury 35-28 in the game, and 10-5 in the third, but the Bantams did not match the efficiency of the Panthers shooting this afternoon.   

Trinity will visit Amherst in a non-conference game on Wed., Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.

Box score