After dropping two games at home last weekend, the men's hockey team will hit the road in its final weekend of away contests in an attempt to end its six game losing streak.
"To pick up a win against anybody when you only have four wins would be pretty big," coach Brian Murphy said. "The guys are still working hard and nobody has jumped ship. It hasn't been easy. We are continuing to work hard and to get better. There is not one guy on this team who is ready to give up."
Sophomore Timm Schatz echoed his coach's attitude. "We've had a pretty rough season thus far, but there are still some league games and we are gonna go in there and play as hard as we possibly can," he said. "At this point in the game it's just go in there and play as hard as we can and see how it comes out."
Tonight, the 4-14 Jumbos will head to upstate New York to face Hamilton College, and tomorrow will face the Lord Jeffs of Amherst - both NESCAC foes. Hamilton and Amherst are close competitors with similar stats, while Tufts doesn't quite have numbers that match up.
"It would be nice to get some points this weekend," coach Brian Murphy said. "I think it is by far the toughest road trip in the league. We leave at 10 a.m. [today] take a five hour ride and play at seven. And we stay just outside Hamilton and then we drive three hours from Hamilton to Amherst [on Saturday]."
Hamilton boasts a winning record of 9-5-1 in the NESCAC and ranks fourth in the NESCAC in offensive scoring, with 4.33 goals per game. Though Tufts started the season with strong scoring, the team is currently averaging 2.87 gpg.
If tenth ranked Tufts is to contain the Continentals, it has to keep a close watch on Hamilton's leading scorer, junior Rob Gordon, who averages 1.47 ppg. Tufts junior tri-captain Mike Carceo boasts slightly higher scoring stats than Gordon, averaging 1.53 ppg.
Amherst offers more equal competition for the Jumbos. Ranked eighth in the NESCAC, and struggling to surpass the .500 mark, the 4-7-4 Lord Jeffs net an average of 3.33 goals per game. However, the Jumbos will have to keep a close eye on Amherst freshman Beau Kretzman, the Lord Jeffs' leading scorer, who averages 1.67 ppg, including 12 goals on the season.
On the powerplay - a facet of the game that has bedeviled Tufts this season - the team has only gone nine for 64 (14.1 percent) while the Lord Jeffs are 14 for 66 (21.6 percent) on the powerplay.
On a positive note, if their pack of solid freshman and top offensemen Carceo, Pat Byrne, and Chris Martin play to their full capacity, the Jumbos might have a chance against Hamilton and Amherst's defenses. Currently, the Continentals have let up 48 goals on the season, averaging 3.20 goals against per game. The Lord Jeffs rank closely behind, letting up 55 goals at 3.67 goals per game.
"The freshmen have been coming up huge all year," Schatz said. "It seems like every time we start playing well the freshmen are right in the mix of everything and that is pretty impressive considering it is such a big step coming from high school to college hockey."
Next week, the Jumbos face Plymouth State on the road and will finish out the season next weekend with a pair of home games. In order to clinch a playoff berth, the squad must win all of the four remaining NESCAC contests, and Connecticut, Amherst and Wesleyan will have to drop several games. Though the Jumbos aren't likely to see any post-season action this year, the squad is hopeful of next year.
"A couple of wins down the stretch would absolutely help to set the tone for next season," Murphy said. "We are focused right now on [today's] game and we will go from there."
The puck will drop at 7 p.m. this evening and 3 p.m. tomorrow.
