Bowdoin Men's Hockey Advance to NESCAC Final

The Bowdoin College men’s ice hockey team scored five times in the third period to pull away from Hamilton, 6-2, in a NESCAC Semifinal game played at Sidney J. Watson Arena on Saturday. The Polar Bears (19-5-1) advance to their fourth NESCAC title game and first since 2007. The Continentals finish their year with a mark of 15-9-2.

Bowdoin had the first great chance of the game, breaking out of their defensive zone on a 3-on-1 . A series of one-touch passes result in a Leland Fidler shot on the back post that was saved by Calvin Bartel midway through the opening period. Bowdoin got on the scoreboard 11:30 into the first frame, when a nice feed from the left boards by Graham Sisson found the waiting stick of Jordan Lalor in front, who redirected the puck past Bartel for a 1-0 lead that they carried into the first
intermission.

After Bartel kept the Continentals in contention with several strong saves to open the second period, Hamilton’s Joe Houk skated into the offensive zone, handled around a pair of Bowdoin defenders and found Tom Chiappetta on the far post for a top-shelf one-timer with just over nine minutes left in the second frame.

Bowdoin opened the third period by crashing the Hamilton net and converting just 46 ticks into the frame when Al Milley pounced on a loose puck in front to give the hosts a 2-1 lead. Bowdoin continued to pressure the goal and added to their lead on the power play at 7:57 when Mike Corbelle ripped a shot from the left point that was redirected into the cage by Daniel Weinger for a 3-1 advantage. Weiniger set up Leland Fidler moments later, chipping a pass to the left circle for Leland Fidler, who snapped a shot that tucked inside the right post. The Polar Bears continued to pour it on, getting another goal from Weiniger, who wristed a top-shelf shot past Bartel at 11:05.

Hamilton stopped the bleeding with 6:47 remaining when Jerome Wallace pounced on a rebound to cut the lead to 5-2. But the Continentals could get no closer and Jeff Fanning added an empty-netter for Bowdoin to make it a 6-2 final.

Weiniger led all scorers with two goals and two assists. Chiappetta had a goal and an assist for the Continentals. Bartel stopped 32 shots in the loss for Hamilton while Chris Rossi collected 26 for the Polar Bears, who have outscored their opponents 23-5 during their current eight-game winning streak.

BOX SCORE:
http://collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/mbowham1.m06