Hartford, Conn. - The Trinity College men's hockey team knocked off the Wesleyan University Cardinals, 5-3, on Friday night as the team honored its six seniors before the start of the game. Trinity improves to 17-5-1 overall and 13-4-0 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) while Wesleyan falls to 2-13-8 and 2-8-7 in league play.

The Bantams got on the board 8:35 into the first period when junior Brandon Cole (Anchorage, Alaska) ripped a slap shot on net that Wesleyan starting goalie Daniel Weiss (Potomac, Md.) stopped, however Ethan Holdaway (Glastonbury, Conn.) corralled the rebound and flicked a shot past Weiss to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, sophomore Anthony Sabitsky (Sicklerville, N.J.) got a pass from Sean Orlando (Ivyland, Pa.) that Sabitsky fired past Weiss for Trinity's second goal. Wesleyan answered when captain Jay Matthews (Marshfield, Mass.) cleaned up the puck during a scrum in front of Bantam goalie Nathaniel Heilbron (West Vancouver, B.C.), cutting the deficit to one. Trinity added one more goal before the end of the period when Ryan Cole (Anchorage, Alaska) fed Orlando who netted his seventh goal of the season to put Trinity up 3-1 entering the first intermission.

The lone second period goal occured when Trinity was whistled for a roughing call 13:56 into the period, giving Wesleyan a man advantage. Eric Casey (Sunbury, Pa.) converted with less than two seconds left on the power play to once again cut the Trinity lead to one.

The Bantams extended the lead to 4-2 less than six minutes into the third period when Michael O'Brien (Cohasset, Mass.) passed the puck to Connor Hegarty (Wakefield, Mass.) who rifled a laser of a shot into the top of the net, past Wesleyan goalie Dawson Springings (Toronto, Ontario) who came into net to start the second period. Wesleyan was called for interference with 13:29 left in the game that Brandon Cole turned into Trinity's fifth goal of the evening. Wesleyan added one more goal less than four minutes to play via Matthews' second goal of the game, but it was not enough to mount a comeback as the Bantams held on for the 5-3 victory.

Trinity returns to action tomorrow, February 20, when they take on Wesleyan in Middletown for the regular season finale. Game time is set for 3 p.m.