The Middlebury men's hockey team dropped a 5-2 decision at ninth-ranked Hamilton (16-3-4 10-3-4) on Friday night at Sage Rink. The Panthers (3-18-2, 3-14-0) wrap up their season on Saturday with a 3:00 p.m. game at Amherst.

Middlebury took a 1-0 lead 8:08 into the game with a five-on-three power play goal. Vincent Gisonti scored his team-leading 10th of the season when he put home a rebound after a shot had been saved.

Hamilton tied the game with just 34 seconds remaining in the first period when the Continentals netted a power-play goal of its own from Rory Gagnon.

Hamilton took control of the game by scoring the game's next four goals, three of them in the second period. Gagnon netted his second of the year at the 8:45 mark to make it a 2-1 game. Bennett Morrison followed at 11:42 to put his team up 3-1, while Jason Brochu put the home team ahead 4-1 just 31 seconds later.

Neil Conway continued the run in the third period, putting Hamilton on top 5-1 at the 3:39 mark with a four-on-three power-play tally.

Middlebury's Travis Stephens scored the game's final goal with 2:11 remaining, his second of the year. Andrew Neary's shot from the left point was saved before Stephens scored on the rebound from the slot. Stephens has tallied five points over his last five games.

Stephen Klein made 16 saves and allowed four goals in 32:13, while Brian Ketchabaw stopped 18 of 19 shots he faced in 27:27 of action. Evan Buitenhuis made 25 saves for Hamilton, who had a 39-27 shots advantage in the game.