The Middlebury men's hockey team fell at Wesleyan 5-2 on Friday evening in the first of a four-game road trip.

 HIGHLIGHTS

• The Panthers opened the scoring after just 43 seconds of play. Michael Fairfax latched onto a loose puck behind the net and centered a pass for Andrej Hromic, who fired his shot past goalie Erik Voloshin for the 1-0 lead.
• The Cardinals equalized at the 3:16 mark. Go Uemura drove into the left side of the offensive zone and found Owen Sweet rushing to the front of the net. Sweet swapped the puck to his backhand and flicked it into the net to tie the game at 1-1.
• Middlebury nearly regained its advantage with 7:59 remaining in the first period. EMack Bentley broke away and slid in Wyatt Pastor. His one-on-one effort was turned away by a sprawling save by the Cardinal netminder.
• Wesleyan took a 2-1 edge with 2:17 left in the opening stanza. Sweet skated in on net before cutting a pass back to D.J. Dixon on the doorstep, who wristed the puck into the bottom right corner.
• After only 30 seconds in the second period, the Panthers looked to level the score. Fairfax slipped away from the Cardinals defense but his effort was thwarted by Voloshin's left pad.
• Wesleyan added a third goal at the 13:21 mark. Ethan Davidson blasted a shot into the left corner to make the score 3-1.
• The Cardinals struck again after 8:24. Wiggle Kerbrat controlled a bouncing puck and snuck it underneath the outstretched pad of Jake Horoho and into the right corner of the net for a 4-1 lead.
• Wesleyan got on the power play with 17:02 elapsed in the period. The Cardinals peppered the Middlebury net, but Horoho would not be beaten, making a host of strong saves to keep the score the same heading into the final period.
• With 15:40 left in the contest, the Panthers pulled a goal back. Following a weaving move through the attacking zone, Jin Lee dropped the puck back for Paddy Mangan who blasted a drive that deflected into the Wesleyan net to make the score 4-2.
• At the 11:34 mark, the Cardinals extended their lead to 5-2. Mike Dunderdale collected a loose puck at the point and slapped a long distance shot into the roof of the net. 
• With 1:47 to go, Mangan nearly netted his second goal of the game with a wrist shot from the right circle, but Voloshin denied the bid to keep the final score 5-2.

NOTES

• The two teams met for the 60th time on Friday night.
• Hromic scored his fifth goal of the season, moving him into a tie for second-most on the team.
• Mangan's goal was his first of the season.