The Middlebury men's hockey team fell to visiting Colby by a 3-1 score on Saturday in Kenyon Arena. The Panthers (1-8-2, 0-7-1) continue conference play with a home game against Hamilton on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m., while Colby (9-3-0, 6-2-0) hosts Southern Maine the same day at 7:00 p.m.

Middlebury had a couple of scoring opportunities midway through the first period, starting with a low shot from the left circle that Mule goalie Andy Beran kicked aside. Wyatt Pastor followed that chance up with a bid on the power play with 8:42 on the clock that Beran denied. Colby had a full two-minute 5x3 power play at the end of the frame, but the Panther penalty-killing unit came up huge, keeping the game scoreless after 20 minutes of play.

Colby opened the scoring at the 4:57 mark of the middle stanza, as Alex Bourhas scored off the rush from the left side after taking a feed from Henry Molson. The Mules doubled their advantage with 1:54 on the clock when Griffin Grise one-timed a feed in the slot from John McElaney that trickled through Middlebury goalie Adam Wisco.

In the final 20 minutes, the hosts pressed early with Billy Dobensky being stopped on a shot from the left wing and Zach Shapiro was thwarted twice from point-blank range. The Mules upped their lead to 3-0 on a tap in the blue paint on a nice feed from McElaney. The Panthers pulled Wisco with 4:45 on the clock and cashed in with the extra attacker with 1:31 remaining. Jin Lee sent a cross-ice pass to Andrej Hromic, who wired a wrist shot into the net for his third tally of the season.

Middlebury continued with the extra skater, but were unable to tighten the margin for the 3-1 final.

Wisco finished with 18 saves, while Beran had 28 stops for Colby.