Men's Varsity Grabs 3 Points Over Thanksgiving Weekend En Route to #2 Ranking

The Men’s Varsity team hosted University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and University of St. Thomas this Thanksgiving weekend in a pair of non-conference contests.

The Bulldogs first faced the reigning National Champions, the Wisconsin Stevens Point Pointers on Saturday night at Arrington Ice Arena. Freshman Matt McNair would tip a Joey Colatarci shot from the point at the 3:19 mark to give the Bulldogs the first lead of the contest. Colatarci would grab the lone assist on McNair’s goal. Fellow freshman Vinny Paquette would give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead three minutes later, scoring his third of the season at the 6:52 mark of the first assisted by Cory Dunn and Connor Armour. Armour’s fourth of the season would come on the powerplay at the 14:59 mark of the first, assisted by Paquette and Dunn. The Bulldogs would head into the locker room for the first intermission ahead by 3 goals.

Austin Hervey would add to the Bulldogs lead at the 3:41 mark of the second period with assists going to Austin Rust and Kyle Brothers. The Pointers would get on the board on the powerplay at the 10:04 mark of the middle frame. Brothers would grab his second of the season on a beautiful breakaway goal after completely undressing the goaltender to sneak the puck past and leave the goaltender hanging by his feet from the cross bar. Brothers’ goal would be assisted by Paquette and Chase Matson. The Pointers would strike once more to pull within three goals before the period would end with a 5-2 score in favor of the home team.

The Pointers would strike once again on the powerplay and pull within two 3:04 gone in the third and final frame. Despite being outnumbered 6 to 4 during the last 1:42 of the game after the Bulldogs were sent to the box on a questionable call, the Bulldogs penalty and Kevin Entmaa would hold out for a 6-3 win after Bryan Yim sent home an empty netter to seal the deal and give the Bulldogs a big W over the defending National Champions.

The Bulldogs would get off to a hot start once again on Sunday afternoon against the St. Thomas Tommies, however, they would not fare as well as they did the night before. Trevor Boyd got the ball rolling at the 4:02 mark of the third period on his sixth goal of the season. Boyd’s goal would be assisted by Vinny Paquette and Cory Dunn. Paquette would grab one of his own, his second of the weekend, at the 9:37 mark of the first period. Dunn would take the lone assist on Paquette’s goal. Vinny Post would grab his first as a Bulldog in his first game of the season at the 10:20 mark after catching a pass from Kyle Brothers at the blue line, chasing out the starting goaltender for the Tommies who allowed 3 goals on 7 shots. St. Thomas would score a 5-on-3 powerplay goal with 18:45 gone in the first to pull within two before the period ended.

The Tommies would pull within one at the 10:42 mark of the second period, cutting the Bulldogs’ lead to 3-2. They would tie the game with 31 seconds left with the extra attacker. Despite many quality chances, neither team would find the back of the net and the game would end in a tie.

After #1 St. Norbert split with Manhattanville and the #2 Pointers fell to the Bulldogs, Adrian moves up to #2 in this week's D3Hockey.com poll.

The Bulldogs are back at Arrington Ice Arena on December 31st for a New Year’s Eve showdown against the Trinity College Bantams. Puck drops at 4:05 pm.