After entering February with a losing record, the Tufts hockey team rattled off four wins in six games to conclude a 12-11-1 regular season. On the heels of a 5-3 loss Friday night to Trinity, the team defeated Wesleyan 5-3 on Saturday to complete the season.
Next Saturday, the Jumbos will return to the scene of their defeat last Friday. Tufts locked up the eighth seed in the tournament this weekend and will face the top-seeded Bantams.
Last Saturday, although out-shooting Wesleyan 13-7 in the first, the Jumbos found themselves down 1-0 after surrendering a goal with just one second remaining on the clock. Tufts would recover from that late blow in the second, however, to the tune of two goals from junior goal-scoring leader Matt McCarthy (his 17th of the year) and freshman forward Ross Gimbel (his sixth).
Another late goal in that period would tie it for the Cardinals, but Tufts poured it on in the third, as both McCarthy and Gimbel collected their second goals of the game after sophomore Brian Bailey had added a score of his own. Gimbel and Bailey finished the game with three points, and freshman Greg O'Connell also had two assists of his own.
McCarthy's second goal was his 18th of the season. He finishes the regular season at third place in the NESCAC in goals scored, even though he missed four games in January.
Despite the win, the players were not satisfied with the effort.
"We didn't come out ready to play right off the bat," coach Brian Murphy said. "I think we played much better the night before. We just happened to lose that one."
The previous night's contest, in Hartford against the first-place Bantams, certainly proved to be a test for the upstart Jumbos. While Murphy knew it would take a great effort from his squad to take down Trinity, he did not rule out the possibility.
"We have thought all year that we could beat anyone, and this game was no different," he said.
Tufts came out matching Trinity step for step, looking like a team that was not going to back down. In a back-and-forth opening frame, the Bantams would strike the first blow past freshman goalie Issa Azat at 6:45, but the Jumbos absorbed that first blow and translated their response into a power play goal, from senior Jason Boudrow, at 12:48, on assists from O'Connell and sophomore John Murphy. It was Boudrow's sixth of the season and 72nd of his illustrious career.
At 2:45 of the second period, Trinity took the 2-1 lead. On the ensuing faceoff, Trinity controlled the puck and the NESCAC's second-leading goal scorer, junior Cameron Finch, netted his second goal in nine seconds. With another goal at 16:41 of the period, Trinity had a 4-1 lead.
McCarthy scored on the power play, on assists from O'Connell and junior defenseman Jack Thompson, to give Tufts a bit of momentum heading into the final frame, but the Trinity lead proved to be insurmountable, despite another standout effort from a Jumbos' freshman goaltender, Azat in this case. He had 37 saves in the game, including 15 amid a flurry of shots in a tightly contested third period.
On Saturday, the Jumbos will get a second crack at the Bantams.
This is the third straight season that Tufts will be the eighth and final seed in the tournament. The past two seasons the team has been knocked out in the first round by Middlebury. Murphy and his players have different plans this time around.
"We believe we're a good enough team to move on to the final four of the league," he said of a feat that has not been done before by the Jumbos. "I think we're ready."
