BRUNSWICK, Maine – The Bowdoin College men's ice hockey team scored three goals in the third period to deal Amherst its first conference loss of the season in a 7-4 decision on Friday evening at Sidney J. Watson Arena. Harry Matheson led all scorers with two goals and an assist for the Polar Bears, who improve to 6-4-1 (4-2-1 NESCAC) while the Jeffs fall to 8-2-1 (5-1-0 NESCAC).
Bowdoin took advantage of an early 5x3 power play to take the lead at 2:52. Jordan Lalor skated the length of the ice, split a pair of defenders, and backhanded a shot that slipped through the pads of Jonathan LaRose. At 12:54, Graham Sisson fed John McGinnis in front to double the Polar Bear lead to 2-0. The Jeffs got one back just before intermission when, with 44 seconds left in the frame, Andrew Kurlandski won a faceoff back to Erik Hansen, who snapped a shot from the slot over Steve Messina's right shoulder to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes.
The Polar Bears quickly regained their two-goal edge as Jay Livermore sliced down the ring wing and beat LaRose glove-side just 15 seconds into the second period. Amherst rallied to tie the game thanks to a 5x3 opportunity just minutes later. On nearly duplicate plays 64 seconds apart, Mike Moher and Mike Rowbotham scored on back-door feeds to even the score at 5:11.
A rush down ice gave the Jeffs the lead at 14:36 as Dylan Trumble tucked a shot inside the post to give the visitors their first lead of the night. But Bowdoin replied with a power play goal late in the stanza on a nifty tic-tac-toe feed from Ryan Collier to Colin Downey, who backhanded a pass across the crease that was finished off by Harry Matheson at 19:28.
Bowdoin took the lead for good early in the third period as a 2-on-1 rush saw Matheson feed Ollie Koo for a goal at 5:05. Five minutes later, Matheson finished off another great pass from Colin Downey to give the hosts a 6-4 edge with 9:58 remaining. Kyle Lockwood knocked home a rebound at 17:28 to seal the win for Bowdoin.
In addition to Matheson, McGinnis (1-1), Koo (1-1), Downey (0-2) and Sisson (0-2) had multi-point nights for Bowdoin. LaRose finished with 32 saves for the Jeffs, who allowed a season-high in goals. Messina ended with 25 stops for the Polar Bears.
