The Bowdoin College men’s ice hockey team exploded for a six-goal first period en route to an 8-3 victory over Becker College on Sunday afternoon at Colby.
The Polar Bears improved to 3-2 following a weekend split at the Colby/Bowdoin Faceoff. The Polar Bears lost at Sidney J. Watson Arena to SUNY Geneseo on Saturday, 7-4.
Bowdoin scored its first of the game 6:53 into the opening period. Matt Sullivan finished off a feed from Thomas Dunleavy to put Bowdoin on top.
Becker (2-8) responded two minutes later off a tally from John Dutney.
Bowdoin rattled off five consecutive goals through the final 10 minutes of the first period to take a 6-1 lead into intermission. Max Ginsberg and Christian Capello each scored their first career goals. Capello netted back-to-back tallies following Spencer Antunez’s first goal of the season. Brendan Conroy scored with 42 seconds remaining in the period.
Becker scored the only goal of the second frame off another Dutney bid.
Dunleavy and Cullen Geary each put the puck away in the third period for Bowdoin, with a Connor Merrick goal sandwiched between.
Mark Schiller earned his first career win in net for the Polar Bears behind a 34- save performance.
In the 7-4 loss to Geneseo, the visitors used a pair of power-play goals and a short-handed tally to secure the win.
Bowdoin scored quickly, just 45 seconds into action, to take an early 1-0 lead. Austin Ricci slid a pass to Matthew Lison along the left boards, allowing Lison to find Cody Todesco in the middle. Sitting outside the crease, Todesco buried a one-timer off the cross.
Todesco had a solid game for the Polar Bears, scoring three goals. His final tally came in the third period during a 5-on-3 power play to get the Polar Bears to 6-4.
Trevor Hills and Conlan Keenan each had two goals for the Knights, ranked seventh in the latest USCHO.com poll.
Bowdoin hosts rival Colby in the first of a home-and-home series this upcoming Friday at 7 p.m. The teams meet again Saturday in Waterville.
Men’s basketball
Babson hit some clutch shots down the stretch to edge Bowdoin in a non-conference contest on Sunday afternoon, 78-74.
The Beavers (6-0) are ranked third in the nation in the D3hoops.com national poll, while the Polar Bears dipped to 2-2 with the loss. Bowdoin hosts the University of Southern Maine tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Bowdoin owned a thin 40- 39 lead at intermission thanks to 15 first-half points from Jack Simonds and 13 from Liam Farley, who connected on a trio of 3-pointers. Babson stayed close thanks to Joey Flannery’s 20 first-half points as the Beaver senior surpassed 2,000 career points.
The Beavers burst out of the gate on a 7-0 run to take a 46-40 lead, but Bowdoin battled back and stayed within two possessions for most of the period until back-to-back treys by Blake Gordon and Jack Bors regained the lead for the Polar Bears, 63-61, with 6:28 to go.
Nick Comenale hit a trifecta to regain the lead for Babson and the teams traded buckets until they were tied at 68 apiece following a Simonds 3-pointer with 4:17 remaining.
Comenale and Flannery hit consecutive shots to open up a 73-70 Babson lead with 3:09 to go and, following a pair of Hugh O’Neil free throws trimmed the lead to 73-72, Flannery netted a huge trey with 1:33 to go to make it 76-72.
Farley netted a pair of freebies to cut the lead to 76- 74, and Bowdoin got a defensive stop and a chance to take the game, but missed a 3-pointer and Comenale hit two free throws to ice the win for Babson.
Simonds continued his torrid start to the year with a game-high 28 points, while Farley finished with 15. O’Neil ended with a game-high 10 rebounds.
Women’s basketball
Bowdoin rolled to its third straight victory to open the year, this time over visiting MIT, 88-56, on Sunday afternoon at Morrell Gymnasium.
The 15th-ranked Polar Bears (3-0) own a 30-point margin of victory through their first three contests, while the Engineers (3-1) dropped their first game of the season.
After the teams traded buckets to open the game, Bowdoin used a quick 7-0 spurt to take the lead for good. Abigail Kelly sandwiched a pair of jumpers around a Kate Kerrigan 3- pointer to give Bowdoin an early 11-5 advantage.
Fourteen different players scored for the Polar Bears, who held a massive 58-6 margin in bench scoring. Kelly netted a team-best 18 points and six rebounds for Bowdoin, who also got 15 points and four steals from Kerrigan. Maddie Hasson was Bowdoin’s other player in double digits with 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field.
MIT had three players in double figures, led by 18 from Taylor V’Dovec and 14 from Kara Holinski.
Bowdoin owned a 52-31 advantage on the boards and put home 33 second-chance points to go with 27 points off 19 MIT turnovers in the victory.
The Polar Bears host USM today at 5:30 p.m.
Women’s hockey
Bowdoin dealt Holy Cross its first loss of the 2016-17 season on Saturday evening, earning a hard-fought 3-1 victory.
The Polar Bears moved to 2-0-1 on the young season, while the Crusaders fell to 6- 1.
Despite Holy Cross controlling the majority of play in the opening period, Bowdoin delivered the first strike on the power play with 2:13 to play. The puck worked its way cross ice from Jess Bowen to Brooke Solomon before Julie Dachille tipped it on the right post.
The Crusaders evened the game 7:10 into the second period. Maeve Reilly took the initial shot, which goaltender Kerri St. Denis turned away, but Julia Matthias collected the rebound outside the crease and roofed a shot.
Tala Glass scored her first career goal to regain the lead for Bowdoin midway through the second. The rookie fought for the puck in the corner and then skated through traffic to poke the puck past Tessie Salatas at 10:35.
With under a minute remaining in regulation, Holy Cross earned a power play and pulled Salatas to gain a 6-on-4 advantage. The Bowdoin defense held strong and Marissa Fichter poked the puck loose at the blue line and rifled a shot down ice that found the cage to ice the 3-1 Polar Bear win.
Holy Cross outshot Bowdoin, 34-16, but St. Denis was outstanding, stopping 33 shots between the pipes for the Polar Bears for her first career victory (1-0-1). Crusader goaltender Tessie Salatas suffered her first career setback (19-1), making 13 saves. Holy Cross went 0-for-6 on the power play, while Bowdoin went 1- of-3 with the extra attacker.
Bowdoin hosts St. Anselm this upcoming Saturday at 1 p.m.
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