Hockey season concludes with loss at Middlebury

Extending their unbeaten streak to 19 games, the Middlebury Panthers sent the Jumbos packing Saturday night after a 7-1 rout in the first round of the NESCAC playoffs. Tufts' ended the season with a record of 7-11-4.

The Panthers dominated the game, extending their lead to 6-0 before the Jumbos could net their first goal.

"We obviously knew that they were one of the best teams in the nation so we knew that we were going to have to play about the perfect game. But we definitely thought it was possible," junior Timm Schatz said.

Despite a 6-2 loss to Middlebury during the regular season, the Jumbos were confident that they could give the Panthers a good game this time around.

"We were very optimistic going into the game," senior co-captain Chris Martin said.

After practicing hard the week, focusing on what to improve, the Jumbos were once again plagued by penalties and an inability to convert on power play opportunities. The Panthers twice scored on power plays while the Jumbos went 0-3 in their attempts.

While the Panthers were undoubtedly the stronger team by the end of the game, the first period featured competitive play.

"It wasn't a bad first period," Martin said. "We were down 2-0 at the end of the first, but we had been down 1-0 to them in the last game too and came back to play hard."

Although they still believed that they could secure a comeback, the Jumbos hopes were short lived as Middlebury poured on four goals during the second period en route to a victory.

Middlebury sophomore Brian Phinney scored 32 seconds into the second period, taking some of the wind out of the Jumbo's sails. Four minutes later, Phinney's shot was followed up junior Kevin Cooper's power-play goal and two others later in the period.

"In the second period they were off to the races," Martin said. "They got the bounces and the passes."

All of the breaks seemed to go Middlebury's way as the Jumbos season slowly came to an end. It was not until the third period that freshmen Adam Delaney-Winn broke the shutout on a pass from senior co-captain Mike Carceo.

Neither freshman goalie Matt Ninneman nor junior Ben Crapser could help prevent the Panther onslaught as both goalies were used in the game. While Ninneman started, both played an even amount of time--nearly 30 minutes each. Despite allowing seven goals, the two were busy blocking many more attempts as Ninneman saw 21 shots on goal and Crasper saw 17. Meanwhile, the Jumbos took only 13 shots on goal.

"We didn't play the best game we could have played but they were a very, very good team," Schatz said.

While the Jumbos did not have their strongest game as a team, credit should be given to the strength of the Panthers. Entering as the reigning three-year champions of NESCAC hockey, the Panthers seem on track to continue their rule.

Meanwhile the Jumbos are left to look back on the season and focus on the season to come. After their second season in a strong NESCAC conference, this year's Jumbos end the season with both pride at their vast improvements, but also disappointment at falling short.

Making the playoffs was an impressive feat in and of itself, for a team that finished in last place with a 6-17 record last season.

"After going through what we went through last year, this year was ten times more fun and ten times more exciting," Schatz said.

Losing only two starting seniors, Martin and Carceo, the Jumbos improvements should continue on into next season.

"It's gonna be a great team next season," Martin said.

As the Jumbos now look forward to the 2003-2004 season, Middlebury now concentrates on playing host to Hamilton next Saturday.