The second half of the men’s hockey team’s season has certainly been prettier to watch than the first. The Panthers, coming off a pair of victories against UMASS-Boston and Babson this past weekend, are now 11-6-5 on the season with a 9-4-4 record in the NESCAC, putting them tied for first in the conference.
This impressive record is a result of a 7-1-2 run over the team’s last ten games, dating back a month ago to mid-January. This run has helped to erase the Panthers 4-5-3 sluggish start, and has breathed a new fire into the team’s postseason aspirations. Head coach Bill Beaney said that several factors have contributed to his team’s prolific rise in the standings.
“The group has really started to come together and realize individual roles in connection with overall team goals,” said Beaney. “Guys are much clearer with their own responsibilities, and as a result we are much more consistent day in and day out.”
The emergence of several key freshmen contributors has also amped up the team’s play. Louis Belisle ’14 now has seven goals on the year and Michael Longo ’14 has developed into one of the Panthers’ strongest players.
“Louis came to us with a reputation as a great competitor,” said Beaney. “He uses his speed to create opportunities and is also willing to be physical to win pucks for us. Meanwhile, Longo if you go by the stat book doesn’t show up a lot, but he has been the most consistent guy on our team since day one. Ben Wiggins ’14 has also been working hard for us, recently translating into some scoring.”
Belisle, Longo, and Wiggins all showed up on the score sheet against UMASS-Boston on Friday night.With John Yancheck ’12 between the pipes, the Panthers cruised to victory over UMASS-Boston in an ECAC-East conference matchup. Charlie Strauss ’12 scored his team-leading 11th goal of the year, assisted by Chaz Svoboda ’11, six minutes into the first frame. An unassisted tally coming from the aforementioned Belisle followed Strauss’ goal, with Longo later netting his second of the year, assisted by Martin Drolet ’11, to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead after one period.
Belisle added another goal, assisted by Wiggins, to push the lead to 4-0 eleven minutes into the second. Yancheck conceded his only goal two minutes into the third on a UMASS power play, leading the Panthers to a 4-1 win and notching his seventh win of the year.
Yancheck was again in the cage against Babson the following day, as the Beavers invaded Kenyon arena. Babson struck early in the first, scoring a power play goal a mere 1:30 into the first frame and forcing the Panthers to play from behind for the only time all weekend. The Panthers answered quickly, however, as Belisle got his seventh of the year three minutes later, assisted by Ken Suchoski ’11 and Robbie Donahoe ’14.
Suchoski scored his third goal of the year seven minutes in the second, assisted by Belisle and Mathieu Castonguay ’13, which proved to be the game’s final score at 2-1. Yancheck pushed his record to 8-1-4, solidifying himself as the team’s goalie heading into postseason play.
“It is important to know that the team has confidence in both Yancheck and Nick BonDurant ’14 at goalie,” said Beaney. “John has the experience and has found a way to win night in and night out this season. He will likely be our keeper down the stretch looking at the NESCAC tournament.”
This year’s edition of Panther men’s hockey has proven to be a resilient bunch, with the slow start ultimately not preventing them from being exactly where they wanted at this point in the year.
“As I said to the team the other night, if somebody had said that we’d be tied for first in the NESCAC with one weekend left to play,” said Beaney, “I would have said they were nuts!”
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