This weekend will be critical for the ice hockey team as it takes on the No. 5 and 6 teams in the ECAC East, Salem State and Southern Maine. With two weeks left in the regular season, the No. 7 Jumbos find themselves in the midst of a heated playoff race.
Because of the interlocking schedules of the NESCAC and the ECAC East, every game from these two conferences counts toward the overall standings in both. Currently, the Jumbos are 6-8-1 in conference play and 9-9-2 overall.
Tufts broke a late-January slump last Saturday, beating Trinity, 5-2, in a conference game. Tufts and Trinity are currently tied in the conference and will spend this weekend fighting to remain in the top eight. Beyond simply making the playoffs, the Jumbos will need to avoid the No. 8 seed in order to steer clear of visiting Middlebury, the No. 2 team in the country, in the first round.
Last winter, the Jumbos came up short against both Salem State and Southern Maine, losing 3-1 and 5-2, respectively.
"We lost to both teams last year," coach Brian Murphy said. "So they're going to be tough games."
Salem State (10-8-3) and Tufts are evenly-matched teams. The Vikings' high scorer, junior Andrew O'Neill, has 6 goals and 8 assists for 14 total points on the season. To counter, the Jumbos will look to their own co-assistant captain senior Matt McCarthy, whose 17 goals and 15 assists are NESCAC-bests in both categories.
Southern Maine, at 8-11-2, have been hot since mid-season - seven of the Huskies' wins have come in their last 10 games. The team also boasts two ECAC East Players of the Week during January in juniors Mark Carragher and goalie David Beckles, who owns a .891 save percentage and 3.07 goals against average.
Despite the strong players on the opposing lineup, the Jumbos will be taking it one game at a time, focusing on the Vikings.
"We're preparing for Friday's game," Murphy said. "We've had a pretty good week of practice and some rest time, too. I think it's important to get rest this time of year."
The team had a day off on Monday, giving the players the physical and mental rest they needed, but rallied for the rest of the week, infusing practices with a sense of urgency and more competitive edge due to the close proximity of playoffs.
"Practice has looked good," sophomore Greg O'Connell said. "There's been a good tempo every night and guys are really competing."
Injuries and fatigue have forced Murphy to tweak his lineup a bit, but team chemistry, built up over the course of the season, gives him a deep roster of cohesive players.
"We have been hindered by injuries so there's been a lot of line-shuffling these past couple of weeks," O'Connell said. "But we've been playing so long together that the dynamics of the team haven't changed much at all."
Despite the injuries and recent history against the Vikings and Huskies, the Jumbos enter this weekend prepared and optimistic, hoping to put a recent slump behind them and enter the playoffs with momentum and a more comfortable seed.
