BRUNSWICK, Maine – Six different players tallied goals to help the Bowdoin College hockey team defeat Wentworth Institute of Technology, 6-1, on the opening day of the 2014 Bowdoin/Colby Face-Off Classic.
With the win, the Polar Bears, ranked 11th in the latest USCHO.com Division III Men's Poll and 10th in the D3Hockey.com Men's Poll, remain unbeaten as they improve to 5-0-1 while the Leopards fall to 4-3-1.
Bowdoin tallied three goals in a span of 3:35, including a pair in 24 seconds midway through the first period to get all the scoring it would need. Jon McGinnis picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and buried a shot to the top right corner for a shorthanded tally at 10:11. At 13:22 Daniel McMullan one-timed a pass from Brendan Conroy to make it a 2-0 game. Just 24 seconds later the hosts increased their lead to 3-0 when Spencer Antunez redirected a Jay Kourkoulis shot on the power play.
The Polar Bears, who had an 18-5 shot advantage in the first period, upped their lead to 4-0 when Mitch Barrington was set up by Ryan Collier and McGinnis for a power-play goal with 37 seconds left in the frame.
Late on a major power play, Bowdoin made it a 5-0 contest when Danny Palumbo scored off a feed from McMullan at 5:22 of the second period. Wentworth got on the board at the 11:02 mark when junior Stephen McManus (Westwood, Mass.) netted a power-play goal of his own off passes from seniors Beau Burgau (New Ulm, Minn.) and Ben Iwanowski (Dorval, Que.).
With 11 seconds left in the stanza, Connor Quinn scored what would be the last goal of the game as he went from end to end to make it a 6-0 game with Bowdoin's second shorthanded marker of the contest.
Peter Cronin made 28 saves in the victory for the Polar Bears. McMullan and McGinnis ended with a goal and an assist each. Junior Joel Miller (Calgary, Alta.) played the first period for Wentworth, allowing four goals and stopping 14 shots. Senior Alex Peck (Kirkland, Que.) stopped 13 shots and allowed two goals over the final 40:00 for the Leopards.
Both teams will travel to play in Waterville tomorrow, with Bowdoin facing Salve Regina at 1:00 p.m. at Alfond Arena. Wentworth will play Colby at 4:00 p.m.