The hockey team suffered its third setback of the season Tuesday night, as the Stonehill College Chieftains edged the Jumbos at home, 4-3, for their second victory over Tufts in the last nine days. The Jumbos, who also suffered a 7-4 drubbing at the hands of the Chieftains in the Coca Cola Thanksgiving Shootout Championship on Nov. 26, had previously topped Stonehill in each of the teams' last seven meetings. With the loss, coach Brian Murphy's squad dropped to 3-3 overall.
"They're a much improved team," Murphy said. "We didn't play 60 minutes, and we're not good enough to play 30 minutes of the game and win against anybody. We didn't come out ready to go."
Stonehill, on the other hand, got off to a fast start Tuesday with two goals in the first 11 minutes. Still, the Chieftains could not put the Jumbos away for good until sophomore Brandon Ready beat Tufts goalie Ian Kell from ten feet away for the game winner at 6:16 of the third period.
"The guy was in the corner behind the goal line," Murphy said. "He sort of threw it out in front and it looked like it may have rolled off someone's leg and into the net. It was a real flukey goal."
Stonehill's Jeff Rowe opened the scoring with a power play goal at 8:32, finishing a pass from Rob Pascale and Brendan Flemming. Flemming, who recorded four goals in the Nov. 26 game, then gave his team a 2-0 cushion at the 11:09 mark.
Just over two minutes later, the Jumbos made it a game when freshman forward John Hurd converted a power play on an assist from junior tri-captain Mike Carceo and senior tri-captain Rob Greene. The goal was Hurd's sixth of the year, and extended his scoring streak to four games. Classmate and fellow forward Gino Rotundi then followed with his fifth goal to knot the score at 2-2 at 16:37 of the first. Freshman Shawn Sullivan and sophomore Pat Byrne were credited with assists on the play.
But the Chieftains would reclaim their momentum after a scoreless period with two goals in the first six minutes of the third. Less than two minutes into the final stanza, the visitors capitalized on a power play opportunity, as Pascale put home a rebound. Eric Patten and Flemming registered assists - Flemming's sixth point in two games against the Jumbos. Ready then scored what would prove the game winner in the sixth minute.
Tufts refused to go quietly, though, as Sullivan scored a goal of his own just 35 seconds later to make the score 4-3 at 6:48. The Chieftains would silence the Jumbos' surge as the period wore on, holding on for their fifth straight and sixth overall win of the season.
"We missed some opportunities," Murphy said. "And we had a couple of breakaways that we didn't convert. If we played 60 minutes the way we can play, it would have been a different game."
In fact, the two games against Stonehill mark the only times this season the Jumbos have been outplayed in the final period. And in two of Tufts' three wins, the team has been behind at the start of the third. Overall, Tufts has outscored its opponents by a combined total of 15-7 in the third stanza, which Murphy sees as a very positive statistic.
"We want to be good in the third period," he said. "We just need to come out of the gates a little better. We need to work on our consistency."
Murphy identified some specific areas of play at which the Jumbos need to improve. "We need to get better on penalty kill, do a better job on faceoffs and be a little more effective breaking the puck out of our end," he said.
On Friday, the Jumbos will put their 2-1 NESCAC/East Division record on the line when they travel to New England College for a 7 p.m. faceoff.
"We've gotta go in this weekend and get Friday night," Murphy said. "We need to do the job."
