MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The reigning NESCAC Champion Wesleyan men's ice hockey team is set for the 2022 NESCAC Tournament, beginning with a home quarterfinal game against the fifth-seeded Hamilton Continentals on Sunday at 3 PM. The Cardinals (10-11-3, 8-7-3) won their first-ever NESCAC Championship back in 2020 and look to follow a similar path to glory in 2022.
Wesleyan is in the NESCAC Tournament field for the fifth season running while the Cardinals earned the #4 seed for the first time since 2007. This is just the third home NESCAC playoff game in program history for the Cardinals as Wesleyan previously hosted NESCAC quarterfinal games in 2019 (4-1 win over Middlebury) and 2007 (2-0 loss to Amherst). The Cardinals are 2-1 all-time in the NESCAC Tournament against Hamilton, having last faced off in 2018 in a game Wesleyan won 2-1.
Colin Cobb '23 (4-13-17) is the team's leading scorer
The 2021-22 Cardinals have enjoyed spurts of great success as Wesleyan rattled off win streaks of four and five games at different points in the season. The four-game win streak came in early December into January with wins coming over Hamilton, Amherst, Plymouth State and Middlebury, three of which came on home ice. Wesleyan recently enjoyed a five-game win streak, which extended to a six-game unbeaten streak, that lifted the Cardinals to as high as second in the league standings before finishing as fourth-best in the league's regular season.
Colin Cobb '23 has enjoyed a breakthrough season, leading the Cardinals and ranking ninth in the NESCAC in points with 17 (four goals, 13 assists). Cobb's 13 assists are tied for second-most in the league.
Emmet Powell '23 has proven to be a weapon from the point all season as the defenseman is second on the team and tied for 11
th in the NESCAC with 16 points including seven goals and nine assists. His seven goals leads the team, as does his three power player markers.
Other double-digit point producers include
Matt Zandi '21, G'22 (five goals, nine assists),
Wiggle Kerbrat '23 (four goals, 10 assists),
Stevie O'Connor '22 (four goals, eight assists),
Go Uemura '23 (six goals, five assists) and
Tyler Levine '22 (five goals, six assists). Relying heavily on depth of scoring, 14 different Cardinals have scored at least two goals in 2021-22 while nine have at least one power play goal.
Matt Zandi '21, G'22 scored on the power play to help lift Wesleyan to a home win over Amherst
Marc Smith '24 and
Erik Voloshin '24 have split time in the net throughout the season, each starting 12 games. Smith sports a 2.64 goals-against average and .892 save percentage with a 5-5-2 record and one shutout while Voloshin has near-identical stats across the board (2.72 GAA, .902 SV%, 5-5-1 record).
Wesleyan opens the postseason at home against Hamilton who they swept in the regular season with a 4-3 overtime home win on Dec. 3 followed by a 3-1 win in Clinton on Jan. 28. Smith starred in the road win, making 28 saves against just one goal allowed while three Cardinals accounted for the goal scoring. In the Dec. 3 meeting, it was Uemura who netted the OT winner while Powell registered a three-point night (two goals, one assist).
