Brunswick, Maine - The Bowdoin College Polar Bear men's ice hockey team clinched earned a 4-1 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) win over the visiting Trinity College Bantams this afternoon at Sidney J. Watson Arena.  The Bantams fall to 8-11-2 and 5-9-2 in the NESCAC with their third setback in a row and following their second loss of the season to Bowdoin.  The Polar Bears scored three times in the second period to improve to 13-5-3 overall and 10-3-3 in the NESCAC and clinched the right to host a first-round NESCAC Tournament game on Saturday, February 25.

Trinity junior forward Jordan so (Toronto, Ontario) scored for Trinity and sophomore goaltender Ben Coulthard (South Windsor, Conn.) made 38 saves.  Bowdoin featured a balanced attack, as Harry Matheson, John McGinnis, Ollie Koo and Rob MacGregor all scored for the Polar Bears. Richard Nerland made 31 saves and allowed just one goal in goal for Bowdoin.

The Polar Bears made an early bid to take the lead when Graham Sisson blasted a shot that was saved by Trinity netminder Coulthard.  The rebound came to the stick of McGinnis, but Coulthard made another diving stop to keep the game scoreless. Trinity used the momentum to  notch the game's first goal at 16:38 as So redirected a shot by senior captain defenseman Mike DeMayo (Seaford, N.Y.) in front to give the Bantams a one-goal edge at the first intermission.

Bowdoin answered with three goals in the decisive second period, evening the score just 30 seconds into the frame when MacGregor collected a loose puck off a scramble on the left side of the net and lifted a shot into the top of the net to deadlock the score. McGinnis gave the Polar Bears the lead at 11:54, digging the puck out of the corner following his own miss and sliding it inside the post for a 2-1 advantage.  Matheson finished off a breakaway at 14:15 with a backhand goal to give the hosts a 3-1 lead after two frames.  Koo put the game on ice at 17:32 of the third by banging home a one-timer feed from Colin Downey to round out the scoring.

box score