Sports

Hockey teams split final home-stands

By Daphne Assimakopoulos ’17

Both hockey teams desperately needed wins last weekend in order to contend for playoff positions, and both the men and women came away with one win apiece.

The men took on Tufts at Sage Rink on Friday and pulled off a 3-1 win. The victory leaves Hamilton with a season sweep against the Jumbos.

“Moving forward, our main goal right now is to secure a playoff spot,” commented Mike DiMare ’14 after the victory.

The Continentals’ defense kept Tufts scoreless through the first two periods. Hamilton goaltender Zach Arnold ’15 earned his first collegiate win and turned away 32 shots on goal.

Kenny Matheson ’16 opened up the scoring 7:16 into the first period, off of assists from Conor Lamberti and Jon Carkeek ’17.

The scoring continued 4:51 into the second period when Robbie Murden ’17 took advantage of the power play, scoring his 11th goal with assists from Truman Landowski ’17 and Evan Haney ’14.

In the third period, Arnold recorded 12 saves while Tufts had a power play advantage. Nevertheless, Tufts did manage to put one in on their sixth power play to put themselves on the board.

With 50 seconds remaining in the third period, Tufts opted to pull their goaltender for a one man advantage over Hamilton.

The Continentals capitalized on this opportunity, and Pat Curtis ’15 scored on the empty net after Kenny Matheson ’16 won the face off and got the pass to Dom Jancaterino ’14, who connected with Curtis for the final goal of the match.

On Saturday the Continentals took on Connecticut College, but dropped the match 5-2. In order to qualify for playoff hockey, Hamilton must now hope for two losses from Wesleyan and earn two wins against the competitively ranked Williams and Middlebury.

“This season has been much different than the last couple for us,” commented team captain Mike DiMare ’14. “Unfortunately our results do not reflect the strides of improvement that we have made.”

“The last few seasons we did not compete well against the top placed teams in the league but this year we have been right in the games with them until the final minute. We tied Williams who has been #1 in the NESCAC all year long...It’s just a matter of getting the right bounces sometimes and we have not been lucky in that department thus far.”

The Hamilton women took on Bowdoin for a two game weekend set. Despite a 3-1 loss on Friday night, the Hamilton seniors led the Continentals to a 4-1 win Saturday afternoon at their senior game.

“It was a great way to end senior weekend,” commented Alycia Racicot ’16, “the seniors have greatly impacted our program over the years.”

Jill Tokarczyk ’14 gave Hamilton the early lead when she scored unassisted 6:46 into the first period. Shortly after, Bowdoin managed to tie the game, but Tokarcyzk ’14 came right back with a power play goal with an assist from Stephanie Lang ’14 to permanently put the Continentals in front.

In the second period, Nikki Haskins ’14 showed her skill with a goal 7:25 into the period, with assists from Sara Taffe ’17 and Casey Brown ’16.

Finally, Gigi Fraser ’14 earned her tenth point of the season with a goal off an assist from Maddie Carras ’17 to put the icing on the cake in the blowout win.

Goaltender Tori Bogen ’14 recorded 25 saves in her final home game at Hamilton, capping an extremely successful career.

Bowdoin was ranked second in the NESCAC, and Hamilton had just lost their thirteenth NESCAC game in a row. The Continentals handed the Polar Bears their third NESCAC loss this season, and came away with their first conference win.

The women’s team will travel to Waterville, Maine this Saturday for their final weekend series against Colby, and the men will play at Williams and Middlebury.

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