Courtesy Trinity Sports Information
HARTFORD, Conn. - Sixth-seeded Amherst capitalized on two goals from defenseman John Festa to best fifth-seeded Middlebury 4-2 in a NESCAC Men's Ice Hockey Semifinal hosted by Trinity on Saturday. With the win, the Purple & White improve to 12-11-4 and advance to their third straight conference championship game. They will take on the winner of the second semifinal between second-seeded Trinity and eighth-seeded Tufts. The Panthers (8-11-7), who have the most NESCAC titles of any program in the conference, were looking to return to the final for the first time since 2012.
Festa opened the scoring for Amherst, netting his first goal of the season right before the nine-minute mark. Festa scooped up a loose puck near center ice before deking around a Middlebury defender and slotting a low wrist shot into the bottom corner. Despite a relentless Amherst attack to close out the period, the Middlebury defense kept the Purple & White to just one goal as Panther goalie Liam Moorfield-Yee (20 saves) came up with nine saves.
The Panthers came out flying in the second frame, forcing their way into the Amherst zone early and often, nearly capitalizing on a power-play opportunity. An organized and aggressive Amherst side kept the Panthers at bay as goaltender Connor Girard (26 saves) came up with a number of timely saves. Amherst doubled its lead near the end of the period, when Thomas Lindstrom put home a feed from Kevin Ryder. Ryder threaded the puck through the Panther defense and eventually found a wide-open Lindstrom in front of the net. Lindstrom calmly settled Ryder's pass and roofed the puck into the top-right corner. It was Lindstrom's team-leading ninth goal of the season.
In the third period, Amherst extended its lead to 3-0 when Patrick Arena batted in a nifty pass from teammate Brendan Burke. Arena connected with Burke's airborne pass and slapped the puck past Moorfield-Yee four minutes into the final period. The Panthers cut into the deficit when Mike Najjar netted his fourth goal of the season just after the midway mark in the period. Najjar drifted away from an Amherst defender and collected a pass from teammate Brendan McGovern, before slotting a long-range shot past Girard at the 11:54 mark.
Amherst added an insurance goal when Festa put home an empty-net goal to extend the lead back to three with 3:15 remaining. The Panthers refused to go quietly, as Max Greenwald picked up his own rebound and muscled in a late goal to close the gap to just two goals. That goal came with 52 seconds left on the clock. Middlebury was unable to close the gap in the remaining time, falling 4-2.
