BRUNSWICK, ME – Top seeded Bowdoin College (22-3-2) scored twice in the first period and held off a determined Williams College (17-7-3) third period comeback bid to claim the NESCAC title 2-1 in Sidney J. Watson Arena.
Bowdoin entered the contest on a five-game win streak, while the Ephs were riding a 4-game streak.
The Ephs mustered an early flurry in front of the Bowdoin net, but sophomore goalie Max Fenkell was able to quell the threat by covering up the puck in the crease.
The Polar Bears' first threat came when a long pass was flipped in on Dougherty for a shift change, but the puck took some tricky bounces and Eph goalie Sean Dougherty was forced to cover it up before onrushing Polar Bear Ollie Koo could get to it.
At 7:20 the Ephs were back again to test Fenkell who was called on to make three successive saves to keep the game scoreless.
Bowdoin owned a 9-6 advantage in shotsin the first 10 minutes, but Williams controlled most of the faceoffs.
At 10:11 Bowdoin went on the power play after the Ephs' Mark Lyons was called for holding. Just over 90 seconds later the Polar Bears would net the game's first goal when Colin Downey scored in front with assists credited to John McGinnis and Koo.
Bowdoin doubled their lead with just four seconds left in the first period when Harry Matheson scored with Ollie Koo and Colin Downey getting assists. The Matheson goal would prove to be the game-winner.
Bowdoin out shot Williams 18-9 in the first 20 minutes and took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
Trailing by two goals the Ephs came out in the second period with a lot of energy, but it almost hurt them as just two minutes into the period John Wickman was sent off for two minutes for cross checking. That was the first of five Eph penalties in the period.
The Ephs were able to kill off all five Polar Bear power play opportunities in the period, but they were unable to take advantage of the two penalties committed by Bowdoin.
Connor Quinn fed Tim Connelly in front of the Eph net at 4:44 but the Dougherty made a nifty glove save off the Connelly flip for a faceoff.
At 5:58 of the period the Ephs went on their first power play of the day, but the Bowdoin penalty kill unit controlled the Ephs and did not allow any threatening shots on Fenkell.
Eight minutes into the period the Polar Bears' Daniel Weiniger tested Eph goalie Sean Dougherty with a screamer from the blue line to Dougherty's right. The Eph goalie snared the shot with his glove hand.
Halfway through the period Bowdon had increased their shot differential to 11, 22-11.
Bowdoin maintained a 2-0 lead after two periods and the Polar Bears bumped up their shot on goal advantage to 15, 30-15, benefitting from numerous power play opportunities in the period.
Just 74 seconds into the third period the Ephs changed the entire tenor of the contest when Evan Dugdale scored after the Ephs turned Bowdoin over deep in the Bowdoin end on a play by Mark Lyons. Lyons' shot was deflected and Evan Dugdale was there to flip it over the pads of Fenkell to cut the Bowdoin lead to 2-1.
Moments later a Greg Johnson shot from 10 feet inside the blue line to Fenkell's left eluded Fenkell, but it hit the crossbar and bounced off the boards behind the goal.
At 12:27 Bowdoin's Rob MacGregor was called for holding at the blue line and the Ephs went on the power play. With seconds remaining on the power play Fenkell stopped a re-direct and then gloved a shot by Dugdale in close as the penalty was successfully killed off by the Polar Bears.
The Ephs kept pressuring the Polar Bear defense, but were unable to get one past Fenkell to knot the score and force overtime.
The Ephs out shot Bowdoin 9-8 over the final 20 minutes, but on the day the Polar Bears had 38 shots to the Ephs' 24.
Eph goalie Sean Dougherty made 36 saves on the afternoon, while Bowdoin's Max Fenkell turned aside 23 of 24 Eph shots.
With the win the Polar Bears earn the NESCAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"We had an excellent season," stated Eph head coach Bill Kangas. "We played well all year long, which is a credit to this team and the leadership of our seniors."
