Middletown, Conn. - The Trinity College men's hockey team netted three first period goals en route to a dominant 5-1 victory over in-state New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) rival Wesleyan University on Saturday afternoon in the Bantams regular season finale. Trinity finishes the regular season 18-5-1 with a 14-4 clip in conference play while Wesleyan falls to 2-14-8 overall and 2-9-7 in NESCAC action. With the victory, Trinity locks up at least the second seed in the NESCAC playoffs, with a chance at the No. 1 seed, depending on the outcome of Williams final two regular season games today, and Sunday.

Trinity wasted no time getting things going as freshman Michael O'Brien (Cohasset, Mass.) dropped a pass to senior captain Elie Vered (Ottowa, Ontario) who skated around a Wesleyan defender and fired a wrist shot into the top of the net, past Cardinal goalie Nolan Daley's (Exeter, N.H.) glove. The goal was Vered's fifth of the season and came after just 21 seconds of first period action. Wesleyan was whistled for back-to-back penalties within 40 seconds of eachother with just over 11 minutes to play in the first half, giving the Bantams a 5-on-3 advantage, however the Cardinals killed both penalties to keep the score 1-0. Sean Orlando (Ivyland, Pa.) netted Trinity's second goal, beating Daley in front of the net, and soon after, Trinity potted its third goal at the 6:55 mark when senior Michael Hawkrigg (Toronto, Ontario) ripped a slap shot from just inside the blue line that was re-directed by sophomore Tyler Whitney (Wakefield, Mass.) for his eighth goal of the season.

A pair of roughing penalties by both teams forced four-on-four hockey early in the second period that Trinity capitalized on. Vered controlled the puck in open ice in front of Wesleyan's goal and passed it to junior Brandon Cole (Anchorage, Alaska) who fired a shot past Daley into the back of the net to open up a 4-0 lead for Trinity. Wesleyan had one of its better scoring chances of the afternoon just under ten minutes in the second period when Luke Babcock (Stratham, N.H.) fired a slap shot on net from the point, however Bantam netminder Alex Morin (St. Hubert, Quebec) brushed it aside to keep the shutout intact. With 6:08 to play in the period, Ryan Cole (Anchorage, Alaska) stuffed the puck past Daley in traffic in front of the net for Trinity's fifth goal of the game.

Wesleyan found the back of the net for the first time with just over eight minutes gone by in the third period when freshman Vincent Lima (Summit, N.J.) skated down ice, wide of the net, and fired a wrist shot that hit the pipe and ricocheted into the goal. The rest of the period went without incident as Trinity came out 5-1 victors, earning the 2-0 season sweep of the Cardinals.