The hockey team dropped two games on the road over the weekend to continue a three game slide that concluded the 2001 portion of its season. As they head into winter break, the Jumbos rest at 3-5 overall (2-3 NESCAC/ECAC East) with 15 regular season games remaining on their schedule.
The squad got a 0-9 thumping by St. Anselm's College Saturday night on the heels of a close 5-7 loss to New England College the night before.
"We just came out completely flat on Saturday," junior co-captain Mike Carceo said. "We showed no intensity, so they smoked us and just skated all over us."
After the first period, the Jumbos trailed by a dismal six, and sophomore goaltender Ben Crapser got yanked from the game.
"We played better after that and hung with them for the rest of the game, but it was a little late," Carceo said.
The Jumbos faced St. A's in the preseason and fared well. St. Anselm also tied Conn. College Camels Friday night, who Tufts edged out 5-4 last week.
The squad was also plagued with injury Saturday night, and three key point scorers went down. Sophomore Pat Byrne separated his shoulder, rookie Gino Rotondi injured his knee, and freshman Brandon Hayes suffered a concussion.
"Fortunately we'll have some time to recover," Carceo said.
The previous night, New England College jumped to an early 2-0 lead, scoring at 4:55 and 10:57 on the powerplay. Freshman Matt Kniaz put the Jumbos on the scoreboard at 15:17 with a shorthanded goal, when he combined with sophomore Timm Schatz for his first goal of the season. Rotondi followed suit less than a minute later and evened the score on another shorthanded goal with assists from Carceo and sophomore Chris Martin. Rotondi has been a key scorer this season, with four goals and 11 assists in six games.
The team seemed on fire heading into the first break after Carceo gave the Jumbos a 3-2 lead at 19:05 of the period on a powerplay. Byrne and John Hurd claimed the assist. Carceo, who was named the NESCAC co-player of the week last week, finished up the semester with six goals and 11 assists, leading the team with 17 points.
New England commanded the ice for the first five minutes of play in the second stanza, and regained the lead 4-3 with goals from freshmen Adam Wallace and senior tri-captain Pat Bryant. The Jumbos responded with a quick two goals. Schatz led the way at 7:09 with help his earlier counterpart Kniaz, and freshman Brandon Hays scored 13 seconds later with his second of the season. Carceo and Martin dealt the assist.
A minute later, New England brought the score to 5-5 as junior Matt Stack scored on the powerplay. The squads were faced with a stalemate in the third until Tufts was called for a five-minute major for cross-checking at 15:40. The Pilgrims were whistled at 16:23, which put the team on even grounds again, however, neither team capitalized and the Jumbos remained shorthanded for the final minutes of play.
Bryant finally took advantage of the powerplay with 58 seconds to go for the game winner, and Stack added an empty net goal to secure the win.
"We were shorthanded for 29 minutes of play," Carceo said. "They played very well in the third period, but they had four powerplay goals. The penalties just killed us."
Though the Jumbos came from behind twice during the match, it could vie with the Pilgrims 51-28 shooting advantage. Sophomore goaltender Ben Crapser who finished the day with 44 saves, defended a tough third period, deflecting 23 goals. Crapser, who splits ice time with senior Ian Kell, holds a 2-2 record in net with 115 saves and a 6.22 GAA.
The team is now on a two week break, and will return to the ice December 27.
"Over break, we're really going to be working on team defense," Carceo said. "I mean, Friday night we didn't really do anything wrong and you can't really look at Sunday, which was just a debacle. We're just going to keep trying to come together as a team"
The squad will face the Middlebury Panthers Jan. 4 and will have home ice advantage for the first four games of the semester.
