Hockey team stays hungry as they head to Connecticut for weekend tilts

After the cancellation of Tuesday's home game with Plymouth State, the hockey team now focuses its attention on two road games to finish the season. The Jumbos head to Middletown, CT tonight to face Wesleyan at 7 p.m., and then make the short trip to Hartford for tomorrow's 4:30 p.m. tilt with Trinity. With the playoffs beginning next weekend, Tufts has some tuning up to do before Mar. 1.

Tuesday's game was supposed to be the last hurrah for the Jumbo seniors on their home ice. The cancellation kept the seniors from receiving a final sendoff or getting a chance to excite the crowd one more time.

"It was pretty disappointing," senior co-captain Mike Carceo said. "The seniors wanted one last chance to go out and play on our own ice, especially in front of the parents who don't get to make the road trips."

Coach Brian Murphy shared those sentiments, but knew it couldn't be avoided.

"That was a tough situation and it would have been a nice night for the seniors especially. But there were circumstances beyond our control, so now we have to focus on getting the job done this weekend."

That job is to win both games and get the best possible playoff seed. All the NESCAC playoff teams have been decided, but it is now a matter of seeding. At the moment, Tufts (7-8-2 in league, 16 points) is tied with Williams (7-8-2 in league, 16 points) for the seventh spot. Whether it ends up being the Ephs or the Jumbos, the eighth seed will have to go to Middlebury to face the vaunted Panthers. The Jumbos would rather it not come to that, though.

"We're happy to already have a spot locked up, but we really don't want to have to go up to Middlebury," sophomore leading scorer Shawn Sullivan said. "Any spot from sixth to eighth is realistic, but we need to control our own destiny and win this weekend to avoid that eighth spot."

Tonight's game does not look like too much of a challenge on paper, but games aren't played on paper. The Cardinals are 5-13-3 and hold the ninth spot in the NESCAC, trailed only by Connecticut College. Their lone bright spot has been senior forward Jon Blanchard, who is sixth in the NESCAC with 27 points.

"We need to come out to play," sophomore defenseman Sean Hayes said. "We beat them last year (5-4), but there really aren't any guarantees in this league."

Tomorrow's game certainly will pose more of a test for the boys in brown and blue. Trinity is currently tied with Colby for the second spot in the NESCAC with a 14-5-2 record. It is certainly in the realm of possibility that the Bantams end up being the first round opponent of the Jumbos. They will have to contest with an offense which has four guys who have 23 points or more, including team leading scorer Joseph Ori (29 points).

The Bantams are a stingy defensive team as well. They have only allowed 2.71 goals per game (third in NESCAC) and sophomore goalie Douglas Kisehus has put up a stellar .909 save percentage.

Last year, en route to a 6-17 record, Tufts was trounced by the Bantams 9-3. Should we expect a complete turnaround from that performance?

"Even though Trinity handled us last year, a lot's happened since then," Sullivan said. "We're a better team than we were, so now we just have to go out and prove it."

The Jumbos go into the weekend ready to use junior Ben Crapser in goal. Crapser has been out for much of the year with a leg injury after starting the first 11 games of the season. They have been using freshman Matt Ninneman, who has posted a decent 3.36 goals against average in his time in net. But who will be in net for this weekend's playoff tune-ups?

"[Ninneman] will be in net tonight and [Crapser] will be in there tomorrow," Murphy said.

With the final weekend of the regular season upon them, the Jumbos know that it's crunch time.

"With a spot locked up, we can go out and have some fun," Sullivan said. "But we need to keep battling at the same time."