Men's Hockey
at UMass-Dartmouth, Tuesday
Tufts 3
UMass-Dartmouth 1
Revenge was sweet for the hockey team this week, as the squad earned its first win of the season against the undefeated UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs on Tuesday evening.
The win was especially satisfying for Tufts because they fell to the Corsairs by a single goal in a tough match last season. But this year, the Jumbos traveled down south and earned a confidence boosting non-conference road win, 3-2.
"I think our team morale was okay before [coming into] the game, but this win definitely boosted some spirits," coach Brian Murphy said.
"I thought we played well," sophomore forward Matt Dalton added. "There are still some things that we need to work on, but overall we played a good game."
Junior Matt McCarthy, who has scored six goals in the last three games for Tufts, broke a 0-0 tie within the first five minutes of the game, on assists by sophomore Brian Bailey and senior Jason Boudrow.
Less than three minutes later, freshman Greg O'Connell netted the first goal of his collegiate career to put the Jumbos up 2-0. That's how the score would remain for the next 12 minutes, with the Jumbos going into the locker room up 2-0 after a period which saw no penalties assessed to either team.
The Jumbos' defense held off UMass-Dartmouth for most of the second until late in the period when junior Shane Relihan of the Corsairs scored on a power play opportunity making the score 2-1.
"The defense played a huge part in the win. People were doing little things that we weren't doing on a consistent basis the last couple of games," junior goalie Matt Ninnemann said. "People were blocking shots and tying up sticks, which really helped to limit UMass' scoring chances."
Tufts held on to its lead deep into the third and added to it with an unassisted goal by Jumbo senior co-captain John Hurd to make it 3-1. The goal came in the last minutes of the game, sealing the win for the Jumbos. Hurd had assisted O'Connell's goal earlier in the game for the only multiple-point game of the night.
With 10 seconds remaining, the Corsairs' Brian Chapin put one home to cut his team's deficit to one point, but the goal proved to be too little, too late.
Ninnemann started and made 20 saves to earn the victory in goal against the top scoring Div. III team in the nation. UMass-Dartmouth came in averaging nine goals per game this season.
"Given that Dartmouth is the top scoring team in the country, we definitely played some solid defense," Murphy said. "The previous two games we gave up seven and six goals."
Murphy was also pleased with the play between the pipes.
"We had great goaltending from Ninnemann," he said. "He was really solid in net and made important stops while not giving up the number of goals in last week's games."
The Jumbo defense also performed better this weekend, only allowing 22 shots on goal compared to the two previous games, in which they allowed 27 and 36 shots on goal.
"I think one of the biggest differences in the game against UMass-Dartmouth was our team defense," senior Pete Corbett said. "I think we were a much stronger defense and we did a good job
executing our defensive zone coverage."
The Corsair defense allowed the Jumbos 18 shots on goal almost evenly spaced between the three periods.
"Everyone was contributing [in the game], scoring or not," Murphy said. It was a good team effort."
This coming weekend Tufts will play on its home ice at Malden Forum for the time this season.
Tonight, they will face Saint Anselm at 7:30 p.m. and tomorrow, they will match up against New England College at 3 p.m. Both are NESCAC/ECAC East games.
"Everyone in our league is good, anyone could beat anyone," Murphy said. "Last year both teams beat us easily, so this year we are going to have to be aggressive and prepared.
"Playing at home is an advantage, but we are working on getting better every day in practice. We would like people to come out and see the game. Maybe this could result in to some more wins."
