MALDEN, MA (January 30, 2026) – Panthers goaltender, Andrew Heinze, made 29 saves on 31 shots to lift Middlebury College men's hockey team over Tufts University 4-2 in NESCAC play on Friday night at the Valley Forum.
Middlebury improves to 6-5-1 in NESCAC action, while Tufts falls to 5-6-0 in conference play.
The Panthers stormed out to a 1-0 lead with a rocket from Cole Semeniuk. Jake Stevens circled the offensive zone and dropped the puck off to Semeniuk in the middle of the blue line who then wristed a shot into the top left corner of the goal.
Tufts responded to knot the game at one with nine minutes remaining in the first.
Marcus Sang made a series of moves in the right corner of the offensive zone to find a passing lane back to
Sylas Oberting, Oberting put a shot towards goal, and
Mason Daignault redirected it home.
Jack Silverman put Middlebury back on top 2-1 with 5:40 remaining in the opening frame. Reece Brednich created a turnover in the Jumbos' defensive zone and found Silverman in the high slot for a snap shot snipe into the top right corner.
The Panthers added to their lead 3:37 into the second period with a goal from Michael Fairfax. After forcing a neutral zone turnover, John Halverson and Fairfax found themselves on a two on one opportunity. Halverson faked the shot and slid a pass to Fairfax who deked around
Gus Bylin and pushed the puck into the open cage.
The Jumbos cut their deficit in half just 15 seconds later to make it a 3-2 game. Breaking into the Panther's defensive zone,
Max Resnick hit
Ethan Ullrick streaking towards goal with a tape-to-tape feed, Ullrick put a shot into the pads of the Middlebury netminder, and
Brendan Fennell buried the rebound.
Bobby May put the Panthers back up by two with a last second buzzer beater goal in the second period. Tyler Wishart won an offensive zone faceoff with four seconds remaining and took the puck around the net, Wishart then dished a pass to May at the right point, and the lefty scored high blocker side.
Bylin registered 21 saves between the posts. However, Heinze took the win with totals of 11 saves, nine saves, and nine saves throughout the three periods, respectively.
Tufts led in the shot column 31-25. Neither team was able to capitalize on power play opportunities. Tufts finished 0 for 3 and the Panthers finished 0 for 2 on the man advantage.
Tufts returns home again tomorrow for a 4:00 puck drop against Williams College.
--JUMBOS--
