CLINTON, N.Y. – The Connecticut College men's ice hockey team's season came to a close, as the Camels fell to top-seed Hamilton College 5-2 on Saturday afternoon from Sage Russell Rink in the NESCAC quarterfinals.
Hamilton started strong, forcing two saves from Will McEvoy (Ottawa, Ontario) in the opening 70 seconds. Conn controlled play for the middle part of the period, as both Matt Lewis (Pembroke, Mass.) and Michael DiMascolo (Cranston, R.I.) were stopped by Charlie Archer. With just over four minutes left in the period, the Continentals opened the scoring as John Wojciechowski made it 1-0. Just over a minute later, Jackson Krock found the back of the net, as Hamilton led 2-0 after one.
Conn had a strong start to the second period, but were unable to cut into the Hamilton advantage. At 8:35, the Continentals pushed the lead to 3-0 as Krock tallied his second goal of the afternoon. The Camels finally got on the board with a minute and a half left. Steven Ardagna (Roswell, Ga.) and Rocco Testa-Basi (Holland Patent, N.Y.) connected before finding Logan Cleary (Mentor, Ohio) who fired home to make it 3-1. However, just 22 seconds later, Justin Biraben responded, as Hamilton led 4-1 heading to the third.
The teams traded chances early in the final period, but both goalies kept the score where it was. With just under six minutes left in regulation, Conn cut the deficit back to two. With the Camels on the power play, Ardagna found Jack Luca (Milton, Mass.) on the half wall, who shot towards the net, where Will Winship (Andover, Mass.) was able to tip the puck past Archer to make it 4-2. With two and a half minutes remaining, Conn pulled McEvoy for the extra skater, but Hamilton was able to pot the puck into the empty net to come away with the 5-2 win.
Hamilton outshot Conn 48-23 while winning 42 of 69 face-offs.
McEvoy closed out the season with another strong game in goal, finishing with 43 saves. Ardagna paced the Camels with two points on two assists, while Cleary and Winship both recorded one goal, with Luca and Testa-Basi both chipping in one assist. John Russo (South Windsor, Conn.) won 12 face-offs, as Conn went 1-2 on the power play and 3-3 on the penalty kill.
Archer picked up the win, finishing with 21 saves. Three different Continentals recorded two points, with Krock tallying two goals, Noah Liebl notching a goal and an assist, and James Philpott adding two helpers. Hamilton finished 0-3 on the power play and 1-2 on the penalty kill.
Conn finishes the season with a 9-14-2 record overall and a 7-10-1 record in NESCAC play.
