Men's hockey finishes atop the NESCAC

By Ashley Allen '12
SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR

Hamilton’s men’s hockey team sure took care of business this weekend.

Winning six out of their last eight games, the Continentals captured the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC for the first time in the conference’s history and had one of their most successful years in recent memory. In control of their own destiny heading into a slate of games against ECAC opponents University of Massachusetts at Boston and Babson College, the men posted two impressive victories. With a regular season record of 14-6-4, the men finished ranked no. 13 in the Division-III rankings.

On Feb. 18, the Continentals and came away with a well earned 5-4 win. Anthony Scarpino ’12 led the way for Hamilton scoring three goals, while Michael DiMare ’14 added two goals. DiMare tapped in the first goal for Hamilton at 7:43 into the first period, assisted by Joe Buicko ’11 and Nick Anderson ’14.

The Beacons answered quickly to tie the game 1-1. Scarpino broke the tie at 9:19 into the first, adding the first of his two goals. However, U-Mass bounced back, scoring two more goals and sending them into the first intermission ahead 3-2. UMass struck first to score in the second period, but Scarpino halved the deficit just under halfway through the game, then tied the game at 12:41 into the second. DiMare scored the winning goal in the third period at 4:47, assisted by Joe Houk ’13.

Hamilton continued their winning weekend by with a 3-1 victory against Babson in the final game of the regular season on Feb. 19. DiMare had another strong game, scoring two out of the three goals for Hamilton, and Scott Hefferman ’11 stood on his head, stopping 27 out of 28 shots. DiMare scored unassisted with only 30 seconds left in the first to put Hamilton in the lead and scored again to make it 2-0 at 3:15 into the second, and was assisted by Anderson ‘14. Andrew Jelinek ’13 sealed the win scoring Hamilton’s third goal at 6:05 into the last period.

With the win against Babson, Hamilton (14-6-4 overall, 11-4-4 NESCAC) earned the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC championship, setting them up to host No. 8 seed Wesleyan University in a NESCAC quarterfinal on Saturday, Feb. 26, at 3 p.m. Hamilton is looking extremely formidable going into playoffs. They posted a 6-0-2 record in their last eight games and posted an extraordinary 11-3-1 record in away games. Come support the Continentals this weekend in their first playoff game of the season.