HARTFORD, Conn. -  The Trinity College men's hockey team earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament after its dominant performance in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship Tournament that included a 4-1 victory in the final at Colby on Sunday. The Bantams, coached by Matt Greason (11th Season), will visit the Babson College Beavers on Saturday, March 12 at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the NCAA Tourney.  Saturday night's winner will advance to quarterfinals next weekend at SUNY Geneseo.  The Bantams, who won the NCAA Division III crown in 2015 and reached the finals in 2017, are 17-7-1 and enter the NCAA Tournament on a nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1, 8 straight wins). Ticket prices for Saturday's first round contest are $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and $3 for children ages 3-12. Babson students and children under 2 will be admitted free of charge.

Trinity was the No. 2 seed in the NESCAC Championship Tournament and blanked Connecticut College (5-0) and Williams (4-0) to advance to conference finals, and won their sixth league title and their first since 2019.  In the NESCAC Finals win at Colby, Bantam sophomore forward Gerard Maretta (Brick, N.J.) scored the game's first two goals and assisted classmate Jax Murray (Minneapolis, Minn.) on the third during a power play.  Trinity senior forward Connor Sundquist (South Glastonbury, Conn.) added an empty-net goal, while sophomore goaltender J.P. Mella (Stamford, CT) made 30 saves.  Mella also had 21 saves in his shutout win over Williams on Saturday and allowed just one goal in the entire NESCAC Tournament. He was honored as the NESCAC Player of the Week for his outstanding performance.

The Bantams are the only NESCAC school competing for the national title. Trinity previously reached the tournament in 2003, 2005 (reached Frozen Four), 2008, 2016, 2017, and 2019.  Greason's squad clinched its first NCAA championship with a historic run in 2015, defeating Nichols, Plattsburgh State, Adrian, and Wisc.-Stevens Point in the tournament. The Bantams have faced off against two teams in this year's tournament field, losing to Midwest powerhouse Adrian College, 1-0, in late November, and defeating Hobart, 4-3, in December. Trinity had a game at Babson on New Year's Eve canceled.  Trinity is 5-12 all-time against Babson, although the teams have not played each other since 2010-11.

Trinity leads the NESCAC offensively this winter with 8.32 points per game on 3.28 goals and over five assists each time out, thanks largely to its NESCAC-best .274 percentage on the power play (9th in nation).  Senior forward Lucas Michaud (South Portland, Maine) is tied for the NESCAC lead in scoring with 23 points on nine goals and a team-high 15 assists, and received his third All-NESCAC nod and the 2022 NESCAC Player of the Year award.  Maretta adds a NESCAC-best 13 goals and nine assists for 21 points, and Murray adds nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points. The trio has 14 power-play goals among them and Maretta also boasts four game-winning tallies.  Sophomore forward Kyle Tomaso (Newport, R.I.) adds six goals and 13 assists and junior forward Riley Prattson (Tolland, Conn.) has six goals and 11 helpers.  

The Bantams are equally strong on the defensive end, ranking No. 6 nationally with 1.88 goals allowed per contest.  Mella tops the conference with both a 1.48 GAA average (4th in nation) and a .947 save percentage (3rd in nation).  Junior Andrew Troy (Ithaca, N.Y.) and sophomore John Campomenosi (Wayne, N.J.), an All-NESCAC selection who also has three goals and 12 assists on the offensive end, have each played in every game for the Bantams on the blue line. Senior Kevin O'Leary (New Canaan, Conn.), juniors Ned Blanchard (West Hartford, Conn.) and Jacob Borgida (Minneapolis, Minn.) and rookies Eamon Doheny (Lunenberg, Mass.) and Theodore Griffin (Marshfield, Mass.) are among the other top Trinity defensemen who have yielded over 100 shots less than the Bantams have taken this winter.

Babson, coached by Jamie Rice (17th season), triumphed over Skidmore 5-3 in the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) finals to give the Beavers their seventh conference championship and 18th NCAA tournament appearance. Babson, now 19-5-2, will be making its second NCAA Tournament appearance in a row and its 18th overall for Babson.  The Beavers won the 1984 national title and have advanced to the Division III Frozen Four six times in school history.  Babson has matched up against three teams in the NCAA tournament this season already. The Beavers beat Plymouth State, 2-1, in their second game of the year, tied Hobart, 2-2, and beat them, 5-3, and snuck past Elmira with a 3-2 OT win in the NEHC semifinals.