Wes men’s ice hockey got its first-ever NESCAC tournament win in a big way this afternoon, heading to Hamilton and rolling past the top-seeded Continentals 5-2. (Hamilton had gone 4-1-4 agains the NESCAC in the regular season (losing only 3-2 at Wes in the season’s second game.) Wes trailed 1-0 before the game was 90 seconds old but forged a 1-1 tie at intermission and held a 3-1 lead after two periods. Hamilton closed to within 3-2 with nine minutes left, but Wes added two goals in the last four minutes for the final.
Tom Salah ’12 (lower-left photo) had two goals, including an empty-netter with 2:37 left that iced the game. Tommy Hartnett ’14, Nik Tasiopoulos ’14, and Geoff Mucha ’12 also scored for Wes, and Matt “Hurricane” Hadge ’13 (lower-right photo) had 33 saves.
This is just the second time in NESCAC tournament history that a #8 seed has upset a top seed; the other came last spring, when men’s lax beat top-seeded Conn. College 6-5 in the NESCAC quarterfinals. (In other recent upsets, 7th-seeded men’s soccer took down second-seeded Williams 2-1 in OT last fall.)
The Cards will take on none other than second-seeded Williams in the NESCAC semifinals next Saturday, as the Ephs were the only higher-seeded team not to fall victim to an upset today. The game will likely be webcast as well. Go Wes!!