BRUNSWICK, Maine - The Bowdoin College men's ice hockey team clinched home ice for the NESCAC quarterfinals in a 4-1 win over Trinity on Saturday afternoon at Sidney J. Watson Arena.
The Polar Bears scored three times in the second period to improve to 13-5-3 (10-3-3 NESCAC) and will host a first-round NESCAC Tournament game on Saturday, February 25. The Bantams fall to 8-11-2 (5-9-2 NESCAC) following their second loss of the season to Bowdoin.
Bowdoin featured a balanced attack again on Saturday as Harry Matheson, John McGinnis, Ollie Koo and Rob MacGregor all scored for the Polar Bears. Richard Nerland made 31 saves and allowed just one goal in goal for Bowdoin. Trinity's lone goal came off the stick of Jordan So.
The Polar Bears made an early bid to take the lead when Graham Sisson blasted a shot that was saved by Trinity netminder Benjamin Coulthard. The rebound came to the stick of McGinnis, but Coulthard made another diving stop to keep the game scoreless. Trinity used the momentum to notch the game's first goal at 16:38 as So redirected a Mike DeMayo shot in front to give the Bantams a one-goal edge at the first intermission.
Bowdoin answered with three goals in the decisive second period, evening the score just 30 seconds into the frame when MacGregor collected a loose puck off a scramble on the left side of the net and lifted a shot into the top of the net to deadlock the score. McGinnis gave the Polar Bears the lead at 11:54, digging the puck out of the corner following his own miss and sliding it inside the post for a 2-1 advantage. Matheson finished off a breakaway at 14:15 with a backhanded five-hole goal to give the hosts a 3-1 lead after two frames.
Koo put the game on ice at 17:32 of the third by banging home a one-timer feed from Colin Downey to round out the scoring.
Coulthard made 38 saves in the loss for Trinity, who went 1-5 on the power play. Bowdoin went 0-4 with the extra attacker. The Polar Bears up their second-semester record to 8-2-1 and are 10-1-0 at Watson Arena this season.
