One week after both Team USA ice hockey teams skated their way to gold medals at the Olympics, Middlebury men’s hockey pulled off a miracle of their own. From 2–0 down with 1:50 left in the third period, the Panthers roared back to beat Wesleyan in double overtime, booking their ticket to the NESCAC semifinals.
“It’s the best feeling in the world. Still running on an adrenaline high right now,” Tyler Wishart ’29 said, who scored the game-winning goal. “To bring a win to Middlebury and to keep playing with all these seniors means the world to us.”
On Saturday, the crowd at Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena numbered 1000 — as full as it had been for a game all season, maybe in years. Rally towels covered every seat, and a table of free posters greeted fans as they walked through the doors. And on the far side of the arena, an even larger poster hung, emblazoned with the words “Welcome to the Jungle.”
Middlebury peppered the Cardinals' goal throughout the first period. Their first power play came with 18:00 elapsed, but Luc Malkhassian ’29’s riser and Reece Brednich ’28’s backhanded effort were both pushed away by Cardinal keeper Patrick McDevitt ’28, who recorded a herculean 73 saves.
Wesleyan grabbed the first goal at the 7:55 mark of the second period. After the puck ricocheted off Panther goalie Andrew Heinze ’27, a shot back toward the net bounced fortuitously off the ice and squeaked over Heinze’s right pad. Later, a Cardinals player broke free with a one-on-one chance, but Heinze’s outstretched left leg just kept the puck out.
Head coach Jack Ceglarski was impressed with his shot-stopper’s performance.
“Heinze is one of the best goalies in the league, and his statistics show it, his performances show it, and the crazy thing with Andrew is that he has a knack for showing up in big games.”
All was left to play for at the start of the third period. Dimitri Tzaferis ’28 had a point-blank bid stuffed by McDevitt, and the rebound went wide of the left post. But with close to nine minutes left, a missed penalty by the referee allowed Wesleyan to make it 2–0 against the run of play.
“A lot of what our message was that we were saying on the bench and in the locker room was just stick with it,” Ceglarski said.
Middlebury fans watched the clock tick down in disbelief. Their team had outshot Wesleyan 3:1, was in the 60s for shots on goal, and had dominated the faceoffs. However, the players still believed a comeback was possible.
“We just knew that if we stuck with what we were doing all night, that it was bound to happen that we were going to score,” Wishart said. With 3:28 left in the third period, Middlebury pulled its goalie. The rest is for the history books.
At 1:50, Malkhassian redirected a shot to close the deficit. 2–1, Wesleyan. Just 37 seconds later, Wishart’s speculative effort from the top of the zone bounced off McDevitt and fell to Landon Brownlee ’29, who maneuvered the puck into the net to make it 2–2. Tie game.
Bedlam overtook Kenyon. Brownlee jumped up against the glass to celebrate with a mostly shirtless Panthers student section. Rally towels clouded the air as fans high-fived and hugged. It was Wesleyan’s turn to watch in disbelief.
“We had done it before in the season,” Brownlee said. “Obviously, the juice was flowing, and the boys were ready to go — we just stuck to it and got it done.”
The first overtime period began with a relentless Panther onslaught on the Wesleyan goal. Pure exhaustion led the second half of the period to open up, and fans watched with bated breath as the teams traded shots, seasons on the line. The period ended with Middlebury outshooting Wesleyan 14–5, but no golden goal.
Middlebury came out firing just fifty seconds into the period, as Jake Stevens ’29 ripped the puck off the right post. Kenyon rose to its feet, but the match drew on.
The Cardinals also had their chances. Five minutes after Stevens’ attempt, Heinze fended off a dangerous riser with the shaft of his stick. His split-second reflex made all the difference.
Two more attempts by Brednich and Stevens hit the goalpost. The ringing of the posts signaled an impending defeat for the Cardinals. The crowd’s anticipation was palpable, and the winner finally came with 9:56 to play. Brownlee tapped the puck off the boards to Wishart, who dashed inside before firing the puck into the right corner of the net.
Explaining his strategy, Wishart said, “My initial thought process was that it’s a one-on-one right now. The D’s gap was a little off, so I thought, ‘he’s giving me all this open ice in the middle of the ice so I’m going to take it.’”
Red jerseys collapsed on the ice, and for the second time that evening, the crowd erupted. As towels and shirts flew from the stands, Wishart threw his hands high and skated toward the student section, where he disappeared under a sea of his teammates. The Cardinals had put up a valiant defense, but the Panthers' offense overwhelmed in the end, outshooting them 75–25.
“I’m so happy for the guys with the amount of work they put in — not just today in the game — but all season and all week from top to bottom,” Ceglarski said.
Middlebury survived the second-longest game in men’s NESCAC tournament history. Among the fans, anticipation runs high for this weekend’s final. Middlebury travels to Clinton, NY, to face Bowdoin in the Frozen Four on Saturday, with the hope of playing in the championship tilt on Sunday. When asked about the upcoming weekend, Ceglarski expressed confidence in his players: “I trust our brand against all teams, I believe in how we play a lot, and I believe in our guys.”
