Hockey Bounces Back From Tough Loss, Beats Amherst

MEGHAN O’REILLY ’19
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Friday, Dec. 2, the Trinity Men’s Hockey Team hosted Hamilton College. A plethora of penalties against the Bantams gave way to three power-play goals scored by Hamilton in the first period alone. Anthony Sabitsky ’18 finally managed to score one goal for Trinity in the second period but a fourth and final goal by Hamilton in the last period shut the door for any chance of a comeback.
Despite outshooting the Continentals by an exceptional margin of 46-27, Trinity fell 4-1. The loss was the team’s third on the season and their second dropped match against a NESCAC opponent.
The following day, the men took on fellow NESCAC opponent Amherst College. The Bantams got off to another rough start when Amherst scored within the first two minutes of the game but Sabitsky quickly responded with a goal of his own five minutes later, assisted by Liam Feeney ’20 and Ryan Pfeffer ’19. At the start of the second period, it was Trinity’s turn to score early, when Tyler Whitney ’18 netted a goal in 50 seconds, assisted by Pfeffer, putting the Bantams up 2-1.
However, a tripping penalty on Trinity later in the second gave Amherst the power play opportunity they needed to battle back and tie the game 2-2. Late in the same period, after intense back and forth action between the two teams, Charlie Zuccarini ’19 managed to sneak one by the Amherst goalie off the assists by Feeney and Brandon Cole ’17, sending the Bantams into the third period up 3-2.
Amherst tried to rally back in the last period and even tied the game but after a heated scuffle around the visiting team’s net, a deflected Sean Orlando ’17 shot bounced right to Cole, who edged the puck in and sealed the game 4-3 in favor of Trinity. The Bantam’s outshot their opponents 41-18 with goalkeeper Alex Morin ’18 getting credit for 15 saves. The men return to the ice on the Dec. 9 at Hobart and come home Jan. 6 to play Williams.