Box
Score
MIDDLETOWN, CT -- The 10th ranked Ephs suffered
their second loss of the season tonight against NESCAC and Little
Three foe Wesleyan. The Ephs trailed by four goals at the end
of the first period of play, and the Cardinals' big lead
would prove to be too much for Bill Kangas' Ephs to overcome,
as they would go on to lose by a score of 6-2. The victory
was only Wesleyan's 4th in 46 all-time meetings between the
Ephs and Cardinals.
Brett Bandazian got the scoring started at the 15:06 mark of the
first period when he capitalized off a pass from Geoff Mucha.
Bandazian's goal would be the first of four tallies in the
opening frame. The latter stage of first period was plagued by a
costly major penalty for the Ephs, and Wesleyan was able to take
advantage of their power play opportunity. Tom Salah would score
the first power play goal with 1:29 to play, and Bandazian would
add his second goal of the period with a mere 27 seconds left in
the first.
Speaking to the early woes for the Ephs Coach Kangas said,
“We came out slow in the first and did not defend well.
This put us behind the eight ball going into the second.”
The Ephs were able to keep the Wesleyan offense at bay in the
second period, as they kept the Cardinals off the board. The
Williams offense was able to light the lamp late with six minutes
to play in the second. Freshman Mike Brofft scored his third
goal of the season on an odd man rush, assisted by Andrew Lepore
and Ryan Scott.
Entering the third period trailing by a score of 4-1, it was
clear that it would take a monumental comeback for the Ephs to come
away with a victory, and with Geoff Mucha's goal at the 5:02
mark of the third any chance of a comeback was all but
gone. Midway through the third the Ephs were able to
cut the Cardinals' lead to three on a power play goal by
Justin Troiani, with the assist going to Matt Masucci.
The Ephs held the statistical advantage in shots, as they out
shot the Cardinals 31-26, but they Ephs ran into a hot goalie in
Glenn Stowell who stopped 29 shots for a great night in net for
Wesleyan. Meanwhile, Ryan Purdy collected 20 saves for the
Ephs.
Kangas gave credit to the Wesleyan offense, commending their
ability “to capitalize on their chances and we were not able
to fight back from a slow start.”
The loss drops the Ephs' conference record to 5-2-0 (7-2-1
overall). The victory improves Wesleyan's NESCAC record
to 2-5-0 (5-6-0 overall). The game was for second place
in the Little Three as Amherst had already captured the crown by
virtue of their wins over both the Ephs and the Cardinals.
The Ephs will look to get back on track tomorrow as they visit
Trinity College. The puck is scheduled to drop at 3 pm.
