Men’s hockey edges Hamilton but falls to Amherst

SAMANTHA BEATI ’17

STAFF WRITER

The Trinity College Men’s Hockey team had a busy weekend playing both Hamilton College and Amherst College on the road. They played aggressive in both games but only garnered one win, beating Hamilton in overtime and losing to Amherst.

In their Dec. 5 matchup with Hamilton, the Continentals were able to put the first points on the board after Robbie Murden scored just four minutes in, giving Hamilton a 1-0 lead after the first period. Murden scored another goal in the second to extend the lead to two. Towards the end of the second period, Trinity was finally able to get on the scoreboard with a goal from Michael Hawkrigg ’16 assisted by Sean Orlando ’17. This brought the score to 2-1, which remained for the rest of the second and most of the third period.

Seeing victory fading away, the Bantams knew that they needed at least another goal to go into overtime. With two minutes left in the contest, Ethan Holdaway ’17 assisted Brandon Cole ’17 who put the puck past the Continentals goalie to tie the game and send it to overtime. In overtime, the Bantams didn’t take long to ice the game, with Holdaway scoring the winning goal just 1:22 seconds into the period. Although frustrating at times, the Bantams were able to win the game 3-2 and had great momentum going into their game against Amherst the next day.

Against Amherst, Trinity got on the board early when Sean Orlando ’17 was able to sneak the puck behind the Amherst goalie just 1:18 into the game. The Bantams would not maintain the lead for long when the Lord Jeff’s Stanley Brenner sent a slap shot to the back of the net, making the score 1-1. The score remained tied for the entire second period after neither team was able to capitalize on any opportunities.

In the third period, Amherst’s David White scored the go ahead goal with about 12 minutes remaining. The Bantams equalized just 50 seconds later after an Elie Vered ’16 score, assisted by Brandon Cole. The eventual game winner would be scored by the Lord Jeff’s on a power play at the 14:34 mark. This forced Trinity to pull their goalie Nathaniel Heilbron’16, who had 26 saves, and allowed the Jeffs to score an empty-netter with 30 seconds left. The 4-2 loss was the Bantams first conference loss of the season.

The Bantams finished the weekend with a record of 4-2 and a NESCAC record of 3-1. Trinity will next play a weekend of home games with Hobart on Friday night, Dec. 11, and Elmira on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 12, which is sure to be another pair of exciting games.