Coming off a heart-wrenching 4-3 overtime loss to New England College and an embarrassing 7-1 trashing at the hands of the Saint Anslem Hawks, the charged back into Medford Wednesday night, taking down the UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs 3-2, thanks mostly to outstanding play by senior co-captain Ken Cleary and senior goalie Matt Ninnemann.
The game initially was a back-and-forth physical battle between the two teams, but as the first period was 36 seconds from closing, Cleary scored a short-handed goal to put the Jumbos up 1-0.
Tufts struck again 1:56 into the second period with a great shot at the goalmouth by sophomore Greg O'Connell, who had help from senior Matt McCarthy. The Jumbos were working on their two-on-one game prior to the game.
"Greg put it away with ease because the goalie was caught on one side of the net and couldn't get back in time. We really waited for our opening there." senior Quinn Kelley said.
McCarthy downplayed his role in the play and just described it as getting O'Connell the puck where it needed to be.
With a little over four minutes left in the second, Cleary netted his second goal of the night, assisted by sophomore Matt Tosto and junior Brian Bailey.
"[Cleary] had a great game tonight," Bailey said. "He found the net a couple of times, he killed penalties... He's finding his scoring touch. He's our nose to the net."
Tufts seemed to have the game in hand until 5:53 into the third period, when Corsair senior Eric Frank answered with a power-play goal.
The Jumbos lead would be cut to one barely two minutes later, when junior Kyle McCullough got one by Ninnemann for UMass-Dartmouth.
Ninnemann would not let any more get by for the rest of the night as Tufts ran its record to 2-4-1 going into this Saturday's game against Connecticut College. The Corsairs dropped to 4-4 with the loss.
The team attests their strong play to their intensity level. The Jumbos played consistently for the first time this season thus far.
"We wanted to bounce back from a tough weekend and win so we can get to our game against [Connecticut College] and end at the break on a good note," Cleary said. "We wanted to bounce back hard."
The Jumbos also singled out Ninnemann as a big reason for victory in his first start of the season.
"Matt had a great game. He was the player of the game for us. He made key stops especially late in the game when we needed it most," Bailey said.
UMass-Dartmouth did impress the Jumbos with its relentless game.
"They never let up against us," Kelley said. "We certainly dominated the first part of the game yet they never let up. Most teams might have collapsed and buckled but they really took it to us, and they played very well, especially in the third period. They didn't let themselves out of the game."
Facing Connecticut College this Saturday will not be an easy task, and Tufts wants to build off the win over UMass-Dartmouth.
"Connecticut College always plays us tough," Bailey said. "We need to win; we need to get points. The key is to play three strong periods against them. We need to give a 60 minute effort."
Many players said the win against the Corsairs marked a turning point.
"I really think we turned it around tonight compared to previous games. We did a lot of the little things right. We did a lot of back checking, fore checking, overall we clicked. We flowed very well tonight," Kelley said.
Cleary said if the team can play with this type of intensity and motivation every night, it can be in any game. The squad showed the captain a spark Wednesday night, and he hopes it continues.
"To have the ability to bounce back from this weekend, from a tough loss and getting the W shows a lot of character," Cleary said. "We can feed off this and get a lot of momentum."
