HARTFORD, CT. – The Wesleyan women's hockey team was defeated in their regular season finale by the Trinity Bantams 5-1 Saturday afternoon. The Bantams scored three quick goals within the first 11 minutes of the game to get out to a sizable lead. Trinity added one more in the 2^nd and stretched their advantage out to four going into the final period of play. Wesleyan then scored a power play goal to open the third that was followed by one more Bantams goal in the final few minutes of the 3^rd period to reach the final score of 5-1. The Cardinals finish the season 9-14-1 (3-13 NESCAC), while Trinity concludes their regular season on a high note at 12-10-1 (6-9-1 NESCAC) to earn a #6 seed in the NESCAC Tournament.

The Bantams got off to a quick start, scoring in the first two minutes of the game by the hands of Lillian Cassidy who was able to get one by Rei Halloran '23 in the early going. Trinity would not let their foot off the accelerator in the opening minutes, scoring another one less than a minute later. This time it was off a rebound, as Paige Kehoe cleaned up a Martina Exnerova shot that was originally turned away by Halloran. Wesleyan went on the attack over the next five minutes, reeling off five unanswered shots on goal in a row that were all stopped by the Bantams' Stephanie Garvis. Trinity went back to work at the halfway point of the first period and eventually netted goal number three. Annika Dyczkowski followed up another shot and found the back of the net to give the Bantams a three-goal advantage heading into the 2^nd period.

The Cardinals might have had their best scoring chance of the night so far at the 6:12 mark of the second period with Chiara Christie '23 having her shot ricochet off the post and away from the net. The Bantams had a power play chance midway through the second and did not let it go to waste, scoring after six different shots were turned away by the Wesleyan defense and they had a 4-0 advantage. The Bantams had one more power play to end the second period in which they recorded seven shots, but Halloran and company were able to hold them at bay heading into the final period of play.

The Cardinals got a (wo)man-up situation to begin the 3^rd period and took advantage of it to score their first goal of the game just two minutes in. Brigitte Goeler-Slough '23 was able to work the puck to Christina Tournas '25 who was able to beat Garvis for the first time Saturday evening and put the Cards on the board. Wesleyan had another power play chance with six minutes to go, but it was the Bantams who were able to notch a shorthanded goal. Ethal Wilhelmsson was the beneficiary of a Jenny Guider pass that gave the Bantams their 5^th and final goal of Saturday's contest.

Trinity outshot the Cardinals 38-25. Halloran made 33 saves for the Cardinals. Tournas scored her team-leading 4^th goal of 2022-23, while Goeler-Slough adds her 3^rd assist of the season. Trinity had four different goal-scorers and eight different players with at least one point.

Wesleyan earns the #8 seed for the NESCAC Tournament and will have to travel to Amherst to take on the conference leading Mammoths on February 25^th.