Hamilton College's Mike DiMare ’14 scored a career-high six points and the Continentals posted an 8-5 victory over the Wesleyan University Cardinals in a NESCAC game played at Hamilton’s Russell Sage Rink on Saturday night.
Box score
The Continentals' first win this season came at the expense of previously undefeated Wesleyan (2-1-0, 2-1 NESCAC). Hamilton’s special teams posted a dominant performance. The Continentals converted five of their nine power-play opportunities and killed six of seven penalties while Evan Haney '14 contributed a short-handed goal.
DiMare’s linemates, Robbie Murden ’17 and Kenny Matheson ‘16, recorded personal-best totals of five and four points, respectively. The three combined for four goals and 11 assists in the victory. Marko Brelih ’16 recorded his first career multi-goal game, collecting a pair of Hamilton’s power-play goals.
Matheson, who finished with a goal and three assists, put Hamilton ahead to stay at 3-2 with just 10 seconds left in the first period when he turned a pass from DiMare into a goal. His goal came just 28 seconds after Wesleyan’s Jay Matthews ’16 had tied the score at 2-2 and was the third lead change of the period.
Matthews picked up the Cardinals’ last goal of the night as Wesleyan pulled to within two goals after Hamilton opened up a 7-3 lead with the first two goals of the third period. James Albrecht ’15 scored on a Wesleyan power play with 8:44 left in the third and Matthews scored 2:13 later. Haney’s short-handed goal – the first of his career – sealed Hamilton’s win with 2:14 to go.
The Continentals (1-2-0, 1-2) improved their all-time record against Wesleyan to 25-8-4 and snapped a six-game winless streak to the Cardinals that dated back to 2009.
Pat Curtis ’15 put Hamilton on the board in the opening minute with a power-play goal off assists from Murden and DiMare 49 seconds into the first. After Elliott Vorel ’17 tied the score for Wesleyan with 5:17 left in the opening period, Brelih blasted a slap shot past goaltender Nolan Daley ’16 with 3:12 to go for a 2-1 Hamilton lead. Vorel led Wesleyan with three points on a goal and two assists. Matthews and Matheson traded goals in the last 38 seconds.
Murden assisted on four goals and scored the game-winner just 19 seconds into the third period when he converted a power-play opportunity. Matheson and Curtis assisted on the goal, which came in the middle of a 3-0 Hamilton run that gave the Continentals a 7-3 lead. The streak started when DiMare scored on a two-man advantage nine seconds after Hamilton called its timeout to set up the 6-on-4 power play.
Joe Quattrocchi ’14 stopped 33 shots for the Continentals, who were outshot 38-28 by the visitors. Daley made 20 saves.
Hamilton concludes its weekend home series with another NESCAC game against Trinity College at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The Cardinals play at first-place Amherst College on Sunday.
