Men’s and Women’s Hockey Remain Strong mid-season

ANTHONY ZUCARO ’16
SPORTS EDITOR

As the college was out for winter break, the Men and Women Hockey teams have been hard at work. The Women posted a 5-3-1 record for their winter break games. Their wins against Endicott, Mass Boston, Nichols, and Hamilton were definitive despite losses to Saint Anselm and Connecticut College. Meanwhile, the Men were almost perfect, suffering only one loss to Williams in their 7-1 run.

This weekend, the women extended their winning streak with an undefeated series against Colby. The women won their first match at 2-0 during their home game on Friday. While the Colts started off strong in the first period, the defense and goalie Sydney Belinskas ’18, were able to hold them off with 29 saves. Trinity scored their first goal in the period when Bantam defender Shelby Labe ’16 fed the puck to forward/co-captain Brooke Heron ’16. The Bantams soon took over completely, leading to a second goal by Bantam forward Cheeky Herr ’16 off of a blocked shot. The second game against Colby was even more impressive, concluding with a 6-0 victory for the Bantams. Belinskas and the defense were able to post their fourth shutout of the season. However, the Bantam offense was the star of the show. Herr scored the first goal in under a minute thanks to an assist from Co-captain Emma Tani ’16.

Labe and Finn (assisted by defender Allison Slowe ’19) scored the next two goals in the first period, totaling four goals for Labe this season. The offense only improved as they outshot Colby 12-3 in the second period, with goals coming from defender Jessica Stowell ’18 and forward Mellisa Maffeo ’18. Forward Kate Fraley ’18 would score the final goal to help advance the team’s record to 9-7-1.

Meanwhile, the Men’s team extended their winning streak to seven as they won both of their games this weekend. The men started off with a 4-0 win against Hamilton. All-American goalie and tri-captain Nano Heilbron ’16 was able to stop 22 Hamilton shots, leading him and his defense to their first shutout of the season. Meanwhile, the offense outshot Hamilton 31-22. The first period led to one goal five minutes in by forward Tyler Whitney ’18 as he beat Hamilton goalie Evan Buitenhuis. While the second period would lead to eight combined penalties, Bantam forward Ross Mandigo ’19 scored off of an assist by Whitney. After a power play, Whitney would score his second goal of the night after an assist from bantam defender T.J. Sherman ’18. After pulling Buitenhuis out of goal, Hamilton failed to score, leaving them open for a score by Bantam forward Ethan Holdaway ’18 thanks to an assist from Bantam forward Ryan Cole ’18. The men garnered another victory on Sunday against Amherst with a final score of 4-1. The Bantams faltered early when Amherst forward Will Vosejpka scored off of a blocked shot in under the first minute of the game. However, despite being down two runners for a majority of the first period, the defense held strong and Mandigo equalized the score with a breakaway. The Bantams dominated the second period with three more goals. One came from rookie forward Ryan Pfeffer ’19 off of a rebound, another from Connor Hegarty ’18, and the final from Hegarty’s assist to Cole. The resurgence from Amherst was unable to break the Bantams, thereby giving them the game and improving their record to 14-3-1 and leaving them ranked No. 4 in the nation.