MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – After a full month between games, the Wesleyan men's hockey team showed no ill effects of the return to play as the Cardinal offense erupted in a 6-2 road win over Middlebury on Friday night. Wesleyan (6-2, 4-1 NESCAC) continued their winning run against Middlebury (1-10, 1-5-1 NESCAC), having beaten the Panthers four straight times while moving to 10-1 in the last 11 meetings.
 
A balanced scoresheet saw 13 different Cardinal skaters register at least one point in the win. DJ Dixon '24 was the lone multi-goal scorer, as the junior recorded a two-goal game for the second time in the last three contests. Emmet Powell '23 and Patrick Morrissey '26 each finished with one goal and one assist to account for the multi-point Wesleyan skaters.
 
In net, Erik Voloshin '24 was outstanding in the victory, recording a career-high 41 saves while playing the full 60 minutes. Voloshin easily bested his previous career-high of 33 which came in a 1-1 tie at Bowdoin last season. This is the junior goaltender's first 30+ save performance of the season while he improves his save percentage this season up to .937.
 
Wesleyan opened the scoring less than three minutes into play, with Dixon winning the faceoff in the Panther defense end. He flicked a shot towards net that was going wide of the post, but the puck deflected off the skate of a Panther defender and past Thomas Giroux in net.
 
Just over three minutes later, the Cardinals pushed their lead up to 2-0 as Henry Carlson '25 won a battle along the near boards to Greg Peterson '24 who also won his board battle back down to Carlson who skated towards net. Seeing Powell sneak in from the point, Carlson found the defenseman open in the slot and he made no mistake with a wrister past Giroux.
 
Middlebury showed some fight nearing the midway point of the second period as the Panthers struck for a pair of goals just 1:20 apart to tie the score at 2 apiece. Ryan Pineault scored the first on a nifty backhanded attempt while Paddy Bogart fired in the equalizer on an odd-man rush with the seeing-eye pass from Bret Pastor.
 
Needing a response, the goals continued to come flying in as Daniel Lurie '26 fired a shot attempt from the blue line on-goal. Giroux left a big rebound out front for Lurie to attack as he managed another shot on-target that was again saved but the rebound this time came out to Wiggle Kerbrat '23 who slotted home the goal to push the Cardinals back out in front just 1:32 after Middlebury tied the score.
 
The Cardinals restored their two-goal advantage with Owen Sweet '25 tucking home a perfect feed from Powell. Jake Lachance '23 created the opportunity, carrying the puck past both blue lines and behind the Panther goal. Spotting Powell open by the near side faceoff dot, Lachance found his defensive partner open who spotted Sweet wide-open right in front. Sweet received the pass and with his back to goal, he swept in a backhanded goal to make it 4-2 Cardinals.
 
Morrissey gave Wesleyan a three-goal cushion for the first time in the game just 1:25 into the third period as the freshman received a pass from Kyle Anderson '24 at the point. Skating towards the slot, Morrissey fired a wrister that made its way through traffic and found the back of the net for the first time in his career.
 
Dixon put an exclamation point on the victory with his second of the night. Morrissey sent a pass up the far boards to Andrew Pratt '23 who carried in on a 2-on-1 rush. With Dixon to his left, Pratt sent a centering pass which was wristed home by Dixon.
 
Despite the four-goal win, Wesleyan was outshot by Middlebury 43-23 in this contest but the Cardinals managed to control the faceoff dot with 34 wins against 25 losses for the night.
 
The Cardinals continue NESCAC play with a trip to Little Three rival Williams on Saturday at 3:00 PM.