The hockey team struggled through another rough weekend, losing two road games for the second consecutive week. The team dropped its game against Salem State on Friday night and then fell to Southern Maine on Saturday.
Tufts has now lost four straight and has seen its record drop to 4-12 after opening the season 3-2. Overall, the team has lost ten of its last 11 games, dating back to Dec. 4.
"Nothing's going right," junior co-captain Mike Carceo said. "We're just struggling in all aspects, offense, defense, everything. It's been a really tough stretch."
On Saturday, the Jumbos traveled to Gorham, ME to take on the Huskies, who entered the game at 6-11-1 overall and 4-8-1 in the ECAC East. The two teams engaged in a tight battle early on, but Southern Maine blew the game open in the second period with three unanswered goals and then added another four in the third en route to a 9-3 victory.
Southern Maine jumped out to an early lead, with two goals in the first period before Tufts freshman forward Shawn Sullivan made it a game just 18 seconds in to the second period to cut the deficit in half. With the Jumbos on the power play, Sullivan beat Huskie goaltender Matt Collaton for his sixth goal of the season.
But that was as close as Tufts would get. Southern Maine answered three and a half minutes later, kicking off a scoring barrage that would last until 12:50 of the third and ultimately result in a 9-1 advantage for the hosts.
"We played fine in the first period and the beginning of the second period," Carceo said. "Then we had one of those stretches where we broke down. We can't afford to do that. We could get away with it last year."
In what has become a continuing trend, the Jumbos resurrected their offense in the third period, but fell significantly short in their bid for a fourth come-from-behind win of the season.
Carceo broke his team's dry spell late in the third when he finished freshman forward Gino Rotundi's pass at 15:48. Rotundi then picked up another assist 46 seconds later when he set up sophomore defensemen Ben Delaney Winn.
Sophomore goaltender Ben Crapser started the night in net and made seven saves before he was relieved by senior Ian Kell, who went on to finish the night with 27 stops.
Against Salem State, the story was similar for the Jumbos, although the damage was inflicted much earlier in the contest. The Vikings struck first at 13:48 of the opening period on a Mike Veins tally and then added three more scores in the next six minutes to take a commanding 4-0 lead. Tufts would pull to within three midway through the second period, only to watch the hosts mimic their first period offensive explosion as they rolled to an 11-3 win.
"It was the same thing as Friday night," Carceo said. "We played with them for the first 12 minutes and then bang, we just broke down."
Once again it was Carceo who ignited the Tufts offense, as he scored an unassisted goal 21 seconds into the middle stanza. The goal also marked a personal milestone for Carceo, as he cracked the 100-point barrier for his career.
"Considering the game was a blowout, it was kind of hard to feel good about it at the time," Carceo said. "But it's a good thing to have."
After another Salem State goal, Jumbo forward Matt Spang cut the lead to 5-2 at 11:38. But the Vikings then initiated their second scoring run to close out the period, racking up another four unanswered goals to push their lead to 9-2 at 19:15.
Then in the third, Rotundi scored a shorthanded goal at 1:41, and the Jumbo defense held the Vikings at bay for the next 12 minutes. But Salem would add two more goals before all was said and done to make it 11-3.
"We're not scoring enough," Carceo said. "The trend this year has been that if we get two or three goals its not enough, that's not going to do it. We can't let up that many goals as we have been, either."
Again both goalies saw action with Crapser getting the start before Kell came in relief after Crapser left the game with a minor groin injury. This time the duo combined for 53 saves and Kell turned back 22 in the third period alone.
"The goalies are doing the best they can," Carceo said. "Teams are just getting an amazing amount of shots. If you face 45 shots, a lot of goals are going to go in. There's also been lot of breakdowns in coverage around the net."
The Jumbos will be back at home to take on Babson this Friday and will then host UMass-Boston on Saturday.
