Jumbos eliminated

The hockey team's hopes of snatching the eighth and final NESCAC playoff spot from Amherst were stifled this weekend, as the Jumbos suffered a 5-3 loss at Amherst on Friday and a 6-1 setback Saturday at Hamilton.

Going into last weekend, the Jumbos only trailed the Amherst Lord Jeffs by two points in the NESCAC conference playoff standings, and with five games remaining, the Jumbos' hopes were high. But when they needed a victory to pull even with Amherst, Tufts came up two goals short.

The frustration from Friday evening's loss at Amherst could be easily seen on Saturday, as the hockey team fell again -- this time 6-1 at Hamilton. The Jumbos amassed 11 penalties over the course of the game and were out-shot 60-16. Tufts' lone goal came early in the first period from sophomore defenseman Jack Thompson.

At the second intermission, the Jumbos found themselves down two goals, and in good position to make a strong comeback. But Hamilton came out firing in the third period and scored three goals over a nine-minute stretch.

"We did fine against Hamilton until the third period," junior co-captain John Van Pelt said. "We normally don't travel long distances like that so traveling definitely was a factor in our play."

Against Amherst on Friday night, everything seemed to be going the Jumbos' way early in the third period, as they took a 3-2 lead 22 seconds in on a power-play goal by junior co-captain Shawn Sullivan. But a few minutes later, Tufts experienced a defensive breakdown, surrendering three goals to Amherst in a span of 94 seconds, ultimately ruining its playoff hopes.

"We had a lot of opportunities, on both the power play and at even strength," Van Pelt said. "Our goalie came up big early on, but we just didn't capitalize on our chances. They put pressure on us and made the big plays."

"We outplayed them the whole game," Kane added. "We played very well as a team, minus those two minutes."

The statistics also show that Tufts had plenty of good scoring opportunities. Tufts out-shot Amherst 39-38 and had nine power play scoring chances (eventually scoring on two of them). But the balanced scoring attack from Amherst was just too much for the Jumbos to handle. Amherst had five players with a goal each, while Tufts was led by Sullivan, who amassed all three Jumbo goals.

The losses in both games this weekend, combined with a pair of Amherst wins knocked the Jumbos out of playoff contention. Tufts fell six points behind eighth place Amherst in the standings, with only three games remaining in the regular season. Even if Tufts wins its remaining three games and Amherst loses its remaining two, Amherst owns the head-to-head advantage after defeating the Jumbos this weekend.

With the playoffs out of the question, Tufts still hopes to pull out a win at Plymouth State on Wednesday. The Jumbos defeated Plymouth State 7-2 last time the two teams met.

"We're not just going to lie down and let the other teams roll over us," Kane said. "We want to pull off some wins and roll into next year with some momentum."