The Middlebury men's hockey team fell behind early, but battled back to within a goal, before dropping a 5-2 decision to Wesleyan on Saturday. The game was also Senior Day for the Panthers, as the team honored Alex Lee, Tyler Capello and Zach Shapiro prior to the contest. Middlebury (2-11-3, 1-10-2) continues conference play at Colby on Tuesday with a 5:00 p.m. puck drop, while the Cardinals (9-8-2, 8-4-2) host the Mules on Friday at 7:00 p.m.

Wesleyan opened the scoring at the 9:21 mark of the first period, as Wiggle Kerbrat tipped in a shot from the point by Emmet Powell. Middlebury had a chance to pull even moments later, but EMack Bentley slid a shot just wide of the right post. The Cardinals doubled their advantage 1:57 after their initial score when Alex Guimmo knocked in a centering pass from Dan Sorabella at the top of the blue paint. Wesleyan made it 3-0 with 4:22 on the clock when Matt Zandi's shot from the left point hit a Middlebury player and went into the net for a power-play goal.

The Panthers had a strong start to the middle stanza, as Capello had his one-timer denied by Wesleyan goalie Marc Smith and Jin Lee's follow-up bid was also thwarted. Persistence paid off for the hosts later in the same shift, as Bentley knocked in his third tally of the season with 55 seconds expired. Middlebury also finished the period on a positive, as Paddy Bogart pulled the hosts to within a goal (3-2) with 45.5 seconds on the clock.

The Panthers had a great chance to tie the game midway through the final frame, as Shapiro and Lee each had shots from the right side turned away by Smith. Shapiro had a bid off the rush that Smith got a piece of with his right pad, protecting the one-goal lead. Wesleyan sealed the win with a pair of empty-net goals, with Owen Sweet scoring at the 18:01 mark and Kerbrat adding his second of the game 1:15 later for the 5-2 final.

Jake Horoho finished with 12 saves for the Panthers, while Smith had 30 stops for the Cardinals.

Middlebury outshot Wesleyan 32-17.