HARTFORD, Conn. - The Trinity College men's ice hockey team, coached by Matthew Greason (12th Season), earned the No. 2 seed in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship Tournament. The Bantams concluded the 2022-23 regular season with a 16-7-1 overall record, a 13-4-1 mark in NESCAC games, and tied with Wesleyan for first place in the NESCAC Standimgs with 39.5 points. The Cardinals were awarded the top seed in this year's conference tournament due to a pair of wins over the Bantams in a home-and-home series last weekend.  Trinity will be making its 21st-consecutive tournament appearance, hosting No. 7-seeded Bowdoin College (12-9-3, 6-9-3) in the quarterfinals on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 1 p.m.

The four quarterfinal winners on Saturday will go on to play in the NESCAC Final Four at the site of the highest remaining seed on March 4 and 5. The winner of the league tournament earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. The Bantams are seeking their seventh NESCAC crown, having won the league title in 2003, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022. The Bantams swept the Polar Bears in their regular season series winning, 5-2, at home and, 4-0, on the road.  The Polar Bears have a 6-2 record in post-season series against Trinity. The other quarterfinal matchups include the Cardinals (15-6-3, 11-4-3) hosting No. 8-seeded Williams (7-15-2, 5-11-2), No. 3 -seeded Amherst (15-5-4, 13-3-2) entertaining No. 6-seeded Tufts (10-13-1, 7-10-1), and No. 4-seeded Hamilton (13-9-2, 11-5-2) welcoming No. 5-seeded Colby (12-10-2, 10-7-1).

Trinity ranks at or near the top of the NESCAC in nearly every statistical category and tops the league in penalty killing with a .940 percentage.  The Bantam defense has been stout, holding its opponents to 531 shots, and rookie goaltender Devon Bobak (Northwood, Ohio) ranks fourth nationally with a NESCAC-best 1.38 GAA and 12th in the country with a .934 save percentage.  Trinity junior forward Gerard Maretta (Brick, N.J.) is tied for second in the league in goals with 13, including four game-winners and four on the power play, and adds seven assists for 20 points.  Classmate Kyle Tomaso (Newport, R.I.) has 17 assists (T2nd in NESCAC) to go with five goals for a team-high 22 points (8th in NESCAC) and six other Bantams have totaled in double digits in scoring this winter.  On the Bantam blue line, senior captain Andrew Troy (Ithaca, N.Y.) and juniors Ned Blanchard (West Hartford, Conn.) and Theodore Griffin (Marshfield, Mass.) have combined for eight goals and 11 assists while starting every game.