Jumbos earn huge win over Salem St.

With six conference games left in the season, over half of which are against lower echelon squads in the NESCAC, the men's hockey team is back in the playoff hunt. The squad jumped back into contention with a 6-3 victory on Saturday at Salem State, after tying Southern Maine in conference action the previous night.

The victory puts Tufts in ninth place in the NESCAC at 2-9-1, just four points behind Amherst for the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference. With the loss, the Vikings drop to 10-7-2.

"The morale on the team is very high right now," senior tri-captain John Van Pelt said. "We definitely still think we still have a chance, especially because we still have to play Amherst."

The Jumbos were paced on offense by senior tri-captain Pat Byrne, who scored two goals on the afternoon, while junior tri-captain Shawn Sullivan chipped in with a goal and two assists.

Freshman forward John Murphy hooked up with junior Gino Rotondi to get things started for Tufts. Rotondi squeaked the puck past Vikings goalie Kevin Adam to give the Jumbos a one goal advantage with 11 minutes to play in the first period.

Van Pelt put Tufts up two goals with just over a minute to go in the period on an assist from sophomore Adam Delaney-Wynn. The goal was Van Pelt's third of the season to go along with four assists.

Salem State came out hot to start the second, determined to claw its way back into the contest. Sophomore Josh Cartier came through first for the Vikings, netting a goal past Jumbos senior netminder Ben Crapser to bring Salem State within one.

Eight minutes later, with just under three to play in the second period, Tufts regained its two goal cushion when Byrne connected on a goal, assisted by Sullivan and classmate John Hurd.

Once again, Tufts went into the intermission comfortably up two goals, especially with the hot play of Crapser, who saved 25 of Salem's 26 shots in the first 40 minutes.

The combination of Byrne, Sullivan, and Hurd struck again seven minutes into the third, with Byrne scoring what proved to be the game winner for his tenth goal of the season.

Sullivan added a goal of his own only a minute and a half later on an assist from sophomore Jack Thompson to give Tufts a commanding four goal lead.

"Throughout the whole game we did a much better job of breaking the puck out and keeping it in their zone," Van Pelt said. "Our forwards played well keeping the pressure on and we had good passing from our defenders."

Vikings sophomore Drew Maderios cut the Jumbos lead in half with two quick goals of his own just 40 seconds apart to bring Salem to within 5-3. However, Crapser held the Vikings scoreless for the rest of the game, with senior Timm Schatz putting the icing on the cake for the Jumbos with two and a half minutes to play.

The win was especially important for the team's confidence heading into the end of the season, as Salem State is one of only two teams to knock off powerhouse Middlebury, currently ranked third in the nation.

The night before, the Jumbos skated to a 3-3 overtime tie with the Southern Maine Huskies on goals from Rotondi, Van Pelt, and Murphy. Though he didn't earn the victory, sophomore goalie Matt Ninneman sent back 41 of 44 shots in the gamer.

The big win over Salem State sets the stage for next weekend's ECAC showdown on Friday night with UMass Boston, a team the Jumbos should handily defeat if last year's 9-0 success is any indication.

"We can't afford to take any teams lightly at this point because it's so late in the

season," Van Pelt said. "We're going to continue to work on the things we have been all year, especially our defensive zone."

The Babson Beavers will come to town on Saturday afternoon, as the Jumbos will look to avenge last seasons 5-2 loss at Babson. A pair of wins over the weekend would most likely bump Tufts up into eighth place in the conference, that much closer to securing a playoff spot.

"Everyone's looking forward to next weekend," Van Pelt said. "We're starting to play more consistently and figure things out as a team.