There's some good news and there's some bad news. The good news is that the Tufts hockey team was able to beat Castleton State College in Vermont on Saturday 8-4 to improve its record to 5-7 overall, and 3-6 in NESCAC/ECAC play. The bad news is that this game was preceded by three Jumbo losses to open the New Year. In those games, all on the road, our icemen lost to Williams, Middlebury and Skidmore, respectively.
Tufts also played a non-league game last night at Suffolk but results were unavailable at press time.
In last night's game, coach Brian Murphy said junior Matt McCarthy would play. He had been sitting out the previous four games with an injury but is still tied for second on the team in points with 12 (eight goals, four assists).
But Saturday's game was the shining light on an otherwise dreary slate of winter break matchups. The Spartans from Castleton State came into the contest winless (0-13, 0-9 in the league) and Tufts put their best skates forward to ensure that matters stayed that way. Senior forward Matt Kniaz notched his first goals of the season as he netted two. Junior co-captain Ken Cleary also put the biscuit in the basket twice, his seventh and eighth scores of the season. Cleary's younger brother, freshman Sean Cleary, also chipped in with his first collegiate score in the first period. Freshman forward Ross Gimbel also had the first goal of his young career.
Other scorers were freshman forward Greg O'Connell (his fifth of the season) and sophomore forward John Murphy (his first). Senior forward Jason Boudrow, the team's leading scorer with 16 points, three assists to boost his career point total to 144.
Aside from the Castleton State game, highlights were few and far between for the Jumbos. Playing in Saratoga Springs, New York against 3-11 Skidmore in a league game, the Jumbos lost 5-2. This Jan. 14 contest was one Murphy believes was very winnable.
"The way we came out against Skidmore was disappointing," he said. "We certainly lacked intensity, and we just weren't ready to play."
Case in point was the 3-0 advantage the Thoroughbreds jumped out to. The Jumbos rebounded slightly in the second period, as senior co-captain John Hurd netted his seventh of the year followed by Boudrow lighting the lamp for the third time on the season, and 69th time in his career. They outshot the Throughbreds 10-8 in the second period. Freshman goalie James Kalec made 40 stops on the day, but it was not enough as Skidmore controlled the third to get the win.
In the first two games back from break, Tufts traveled to Williams, always a tough opponent, on Jan. 8 and then to Middlebury, Vt. to face the country's preeminent Div. III power in the Panthers.
Against Middlebury, Tufts simply got outclassed as they lost 7-0. Particularly discouraging is that Tufts managed only seven shots on the Panthers' goal. Middlebury had fifty on freshmen goaltenders Kalec and Issa Azat, who combined for 43 saves in the lopsided defeat.
In its first game back from a break that had lasted since a Dec. 11 win over Connecticut College (the Jumbos third win in a row at the time), Tufts played the Ephs tough but dropped a 3-1 decision. Junior defenseman Pat Walsh had his second goal of the year and the game was 1-1 after the first period, in which the Jumbos had six shots, which they repeated in the second and third periods. Williams was simply too much to handle for the defense and Kalec (36 saves) as they out-shot Tufts 39-18.
While not entirely responsible, Murphy does attribute some of his team's lethargy to the break.
"The break really hurt us," he said. "We went into it playing so well, and the team was starting to come together as a group."
He added that his team's focus has been a bit too erratic. "There are times that we are world beaters, and then other times we can't beat anybody," he said. "We just have to prepare ourselves better for this latter part of the season."
This weekend, the Jumbos host NESCAC opponents Colby and Bowdoin. Friday night they play the 9-2-1 White Mules and Saturday afternoon they face-off with the Polar Bears, who are also 9-2-1. Both games are at Valley Forum II in Malden.
The Jumbos certainly have their work cut out for them if they wish to revive their season, but Murphy knows it isn't impossible.
"We just have to play better," he said.
