Hartford, Conn. – First-year Sean Orlando (Westminster, Conn.) scored two clutch goals and senior goalie Ben Coulthard (South Windsor, Conn.) made 43 saves to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 2-1 win over the visiting Williams College Ephs in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) men's ice hockey action this afternoon on Williams Rink at the Koeppel Community Sports Center.  Trinity, ranked No. 12 in the nation, improves to 16-4 overall and 11-3 in the NESCAC, while Williams drops to 13-5-2 overall and 9-3-2 in the league. 
           
"Elite players rise to the occasion in big games," Head Coach Matt Greason said after the game.  "Tonight our elite players did that."

Orlando scored his first goal on a power play midway through the opening period of the fast paced game.  Williams found themselves in a 5 v. 3 situation later in the period, but the Trinity power play kill unit came up with one of several big defensive stands. 

It was a battle of two of the nation's top goaltenders, and midway through the second, it was Williams' turn to light up the scoreboard, as first-year defender James McNamara (Bronxville, N.Y.) knotted the game at 1-1.  Williams applied heavy pressure toward the end of the period, barraging Coulthard with shots, but the senior held his ground with strong support from Trinity's defensive unit. 

Williams junior goalie Sean Dougherty (Smithtown, N.Y.) matched Coulthard's play throughout the game, as both goalies churned out several highlight reel saves.  But in the third period, with 9:27 remaining, Orlando was able to sneak another shot past Dougherty, giving Trinity a 2-1 lead.  The goal generated enough adrenaline for the Bantams to hold on for their ninth win in 10 games, since falling to Williams, 4-2, at Fenway Park in Boston, Mass., on Jan. 7. 

Williams did not make it easy.  In the third period, the Ephs gave Coulthard his biggest test of the season, but the goalie was up to the task.  One Williams shot ricocheted off the post, which gave everyone in the stands and on the ice pause for a moment, and the period ended with an even higher level of intensity, with Coulthard coming up with four saves in the game's waning seconds, as Williams tried to bury a puck that remained loose in a scrum until the final whistle.

Coulthard finished the game with 43 stops, while Dougherty made 36 saves in a strong effort for the Ephs.  Two of the nation's leading scorers, Trinity sophomore Michael Hawkrigg (Tonronto, Ontario), and junior Jackson Brewer (Newton, Mass.), each tallied an assist in the game.  The win ties Trinity with Amherst for a league record of 11-3-0.  Despite a stronger overall record, Trinity sits in second place in the NESCAC, as Amherst holds the tie breaker.

Trinity travels to Maine next weekend for league matchups with Bowdoin College on Fri., Feb. 14 and Colby College on Sat., Feb. 15.  Trinity closes out their regular season the following weekend, with a NESCAC doubleheader against Wesleyan University.    

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