Brunswick, Maine - Goaltender Sean Dougherty made 35 saves, including 16 in the final period, to lead the Williams College Eph men's ice hockey team to a 4-2 win over the visiting Trinity College Bantams in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship Semifinals hosted at Bowdoin's Sidney J. Watson Arena this afternoon.  The Ephs improve to 17-6-3 advance to Sunday's NESCAC Championship game against the winner of today's second semifinal game between Middlebury and Bowdoin. The Bantams finish their season with their best record since 2005 (21-4-2) when Trinity played in its only NCAA Final Four.  Trinity had tied Williams, 1-1, in the regular-season meeting between the schools in Hartford in early January, and won at Williams, 3-1, on February 1.

Trinity broke through first, as a flurry of action in the Williams defensive zone saw the puck come to the stick of junor forward Charlie Mullan (Buffalo, N.Y.) in the left corner. Mullan fed sophomore forward Tim Shea (Somerset, Mass.) in the slot, who rapped it home at 7:07 of the opening period.  The Bantams carried their lead into the second period where Williams wasted little time knotting the score. Cody Skinner carried the puck on the left wing and fed Mike Brofft in front, who wristed a top-shelf goal blocker-side at 1:16 of the stanza. Seven minutes later, the Ephs grabbed the lead on the power play as Nick Anderson fed Craig Kitto, who was sitting just off the crease. Kitto knocked home the pass at 8:27 to give Williams their first lead of the afternoon.

Williams extended its lead just over four minutes into the third period as Eric Rubino carried the puck down the left side of the rink, drove towards the net and slipped the puck between the pads of Trinity junior goaltender Ben Coulthard (South Windsor, Conn.) at 4:14.  Trinity closed the gap minutes later as rookie forward Michael Hawkrigg (Toronto, Ontario) carried the puck down ice, beating his defender and ripping a hard shot off the cross bar. The puck deflected to the right to the waiting stick of sophomore forward Jackson Brewer (Newton, Mass.), who knocked home the rebound at 6:54 to make it 3-2.  Dougherty made 16 saves in the final period, including several sprawling stops, and Paul Steinig put home an empty-netter with 38 seconds remaining to seal the win for the Ephs.  Dougherty made 35 stops in the victory while Coulthard finished with 31 in the loss for Trinity. The Bantams went 0-2 on the power play while the Ephs went 1-3.

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