Hartford, Conn. – Junior forward John McGinnis (Cocoa, Fla.) had two goals and one assist to lead the visiting Bowdoin College Polar Bears to a 5-4 victory over the Trinity College Bantams in a New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Men's Ice Hockey Championship Semifinal game at Williams Rink in the Koeppel Community Sports Center this afternoon.  Top-seeded Trinity, ranked No. 1 in the East Region and No. 3 in the nation, falls to 21-5 with its first loss in eight games.  The Bantams hope to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament when they are announced tomorrow night.  No. 5-seeded Bowdoin improves to 16-8-2 and will face the No. 2-seeded Amherst College Lord Jeffs, which downed Williams, 3-1, in the earlier semifinal today, in the NESCAC Finals tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Trinity.

The game got off to a slow start before McGinnis scored with a wrister from the top of the face-off circle that trickled behind Bantam senior goalie Ben Coulthard (South Windsor, Conn.) after hitting his pads.  Trinity tied the game when freshman forward Sean Orlando (Ivyland, Pa.) deked a Bowdoin defenseman one-on-one on the left wing and flipped the puck over the right shoulder of Bowdoin junior backstop Max Fenkell (Meadowbrook, Pa.) with the Bantams short-handed 3:30 into the first. 

Bowdoin answered quickly with a goal by senior forward Harry Matheson (Kingston, Ontario) that put the visitors up for good just 41 seconds later.  Matheson converted on assists by classmates Jay Livermore (Wilbraham, Mass.) and Kyle Lockwood (Ridgefield, Conn.) with a one-timer from the left circle during a 3-on-2 for the Polar Bears.  After Trinity sophomore forward Michael Hawkrigg (Toronto, Ontario) just hit iron after beating both his defender and Fenkell, Bowdoin went ahead, 3-1, on a wrap-around by McGinnis with 11:12 left in the second. 

Trailing, 4-1, late in the second after a Polar Bear goal by sophomore forward Chris Fenwick (Quispamsis, New Brunswick) with 8:14 on the clock, the Bantams scored once on a redirected shot with the goal credited to sophomore forward Joe Horak (St. Louis, Mo.), and again with just a single second left before the final break when sophomore forward Elie Vered (Ottawa, Ontario) touched the face-off to classmate Jim Burt (Hamden, Conn.) who slapped it past Fenkell as the horn sounded.

Bowdoin took a 5-3 lead on a one-timer by junior forward Connor Quinn (Sudbury, Mass.) with 6:49 on the clock, and nearly scored again when Bantam junior defenseman Paul Burns (New Hope, Pa.) stopped Polar Bear senior Colin Downey's  (East Sandwich, Mass.) shot into an open space just before it crossed the line.  The Bantams pulled Coulthard, who finished with 22 saves, with 1:38 remaining, and first-year forward Ryan Cole (Anchorage, Alaska) made it a one-goal game at 5-4 with a blast from the right wing with 42 seconds left to play.  Trinity failed to put another shot on Fenkell, who totaled 34 saves including key stops on close tries in front of the crease by Trinity senior captain forward Will Gray (Wellesley, Mass.) and Hawkrigg in the third period, the rest of the way.

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