This winter marks the 25th anniversary of the 1996 men's hockey NCAA Championship. The title was the second-straight for Middlebury and second of its record-breaking five-consecutive national titles. The Panthers finished the season with a 26-2 mark, most wins in school history at the time.
Bill Beaney was in his 10th year as head coach of the program at the time, where he would eventually end his 28-year hockey coaching career in 2015 with a record of 516-184-51 (.721). He led the team to a total of eight NCAA Championships, including a record five in a row from 1995-99, with three additional titles from 2004-06.
Middlebury won its first nine games of the season, suffered a loss, and then ran off nine more victories before a second setback. The Panthers finished the campaign with eight-straight wins. At the time, Middlebury could play in just one post-season tournament, so they sat out the ECAC East Tournament with hopes of an NCAA bid, which they received.
After taking a pair of games from Colby in a quarterfinal series, the Panthers headed west where they defeated Wisconsin-Superior 4-3 in a game played at Wisconsin-River Falls. Sophomore Mark Spence scored what proved to be the game winner at the 14:17 mark of the second period in the semifinal victory. In the title game, first-year player Ross Sealfon netted the deciding goal just 2:25 into the middle period in a 3-2 win over RIT for the national crown.
Senior Ian Smith and junior Sebastien Bilodeau both earned All-American honors on defense for the Panthers in 1996. The pair, along with sophomore netminder Francois Bourbeau, were named to the All-ECAC East squad.
Smith (12-29-41) and Spence (19-22-41) paced the team in scoring, with support from junior Marc Belliveau (14-21-35) and junior Mike Anastasio (16-18-34). Bourbeau was 14-0 with a 1.79 goals against average between the pipes, while sophomore Chris Farion boasted a 12-2 mark with a 1.50 GAA.
This winter also marks the 15th anniversary of the 2001 NESCAC Championship team and the 20th anniversary of the 2006 squad, which went on to win the program's eighth NCAA crown.
