AMHERST, MA. – The Wesleyan men’s hockey team suffered its first loss of the season Friday night at the hands of NESCAC opponent Amherst. The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead into the middle of the 2ndwhen period, keeping this advantage until period 3st period. The Mammoths then erupted for two goals in the final five minutes of the 3rdst period to force overtime. Amherst completed its comeback three minutes into overtime, scoring its third goal in the final seven-plus minutes of play to earn the victory. The Mammoths improve to 3-1-1 (2-0-0 NESCAC). Wesleyan drops their first game of 2022-23, falling to 4-1-0 (2-1-0 NESCAC).
Wesleyan and Amherst tie for 108th time in their history, with the Mammoths holding a 73-25-10 record with Friday’s win. However, the Cardinals have controlled the series recently, with Wesleyan owning a 4-1-1 record in its last six games heading into today. This contest went into overtime at 9 p.mSt when this happened in their long history.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with the two NESCAC schools tied at eight shots on goal apiece. The Cardinals had a late power play opportunity that trickled into the second period, but managed just one shot on goal, which was saved by Amherst’s Alex Wisco.
The Cardinals earned another power play chance just over a minute later where they created a handful of shots and scoring opportunities. The best chance up to that point came on the power play where Jake Lachance ’23 unloaded a slap shot from inside the blue line that bounced off the crossbar before being cleared by Amherst’s penalty kill. The Mammoths managed seven shots on goal, including four in a two-minute span midway through the two.whenwho took care of everything Erik Voloshin ’24. Wesleyan then capitalized on their first goal of the game. Colin Cobb ’23 picked up the loose puck after a faceoff and immediately took it to Wisco, beating him glove side with a nifty move to his left.
The Cardinals weren’t done, scoring a second goal less than a minute later. This time it was Emmett Powell ’23 cleaning up a mess in front as Jeremy Abraham ’24 was knocked down from the move, crashing into the keeper. Two Cardinals couldn’t finish the deal with Wisco out of the game, but Powell came in and capitalized on the open net opportunity on third down for the Cards to give them a two-goal lead.
The two teams traded shots off the line to start the period, but with both goaltenders looking sharp over the next 10 minutes, the game looked destined for a 2-0 win for the Cardinals. Amherst couldn’t convert on two power-play opportunities, and the Wesleyan defense looked like it would hold. Amherst then followed through with their first goal of the game with just under four minutes remaining. They came right back with an equalizer just two minutes later, emptying their net for the extra striker in the last minute and a half. Quinton Fox redirected a shot just wide of the goal to tie the score at two. In overtime, the Mammoths completed the late-game comeback with a goal three minutes in to hand the Cardinals their first loss of the year.
Cobb scored his first goal of the season while Powell scored 2when from 2022-23. Move Kerbrat ’23 adds an assist, now has at least one point in all five games this year. Voloshin made a record 29 saves. Amherst defeated the Cardinals 32-21.
Wesleyan will look to get back to their winning ways on Saturday, December 3rdstwhere they will travel to Hamilton for their second conference game in as many days