It was another disappointing weekend for the hockey team as it dropped back-to-back conference games, dashing any hope of an appearance in the NESCAC tournament.
Entering the weekend with a 2-11 conference record, the team fell to Wesleyan 6-3 on Friday night before suffering an embarrassing 8-0 thrashing from Trinity on Saturday.
At 6-3-3 and looking to gain ground in the log-jammed NESCAC, Trinity made the most of its match-up against a shaky Tufts crew. The Bantams set the tone early, as sophomore forward Naoto Hamashima scored the first goal just 1:24 into the game.
By the end of the first period, it was already a rout. After back-to-back penalties by junior defenseman Joe Cappellano and freshman defenseman Myles Neumann midway through the period, Trinity extended its lead to 3-0 by capitalizing on both ends of a two-man advantage. The Bantams' ability to take advantage of their power play opportunities was a difference-maker in the game.
"Penalties cost us this game," freshman Jay McNamara said. "Three of their goals were power play goals. The rest were [our] careless mistakes."
Trinity tacked on two more goals on even-strength tallies from freshman defenseman Richard Hollstein and senior forward Matthew Rafuse before the first intermission.
"We were outcoached, outworked, and outplayed," coach Brian Murphy said. "This was definitely a step backward. There were a number of things that went wrong today. We had too many penalties and we needed to be more careful with the puck."
Trinity scored two more goals in the second period and another late in the third to provide the final eight-goal margin of victory. Seven different players scored for the Bantams, who also beat Conn. College on Friday evening to move into sixth place in the NESCAC.
"The loss proved to us that we had to work harder to beat a NESCAC team," junior forward Greg O'Connell said. "We need to come together and work harder to come out ahead against these teams."
The Jumbos played better against a tougher Wesleyan team on Friday night, but eventually fell to the Cardinals, yielding four-straight goals in the second and third periods.
After Wesleyan jumped out to a 2-0 advantage, behind even-strength goals from sophomore defenseman Scott Burns and freshman forward Woody Redpath in the first six minutes of the game, the Jumbos fought back. Sophomore forward Joe Milo cut the deficit in half with under two minutes remaining in the first period, before sophomore forward Greg McCarthy tallied the equalizer at the 7:01 mark of the second.
From there, however, it was all Wesleyan. The Cardinals went ahead for good just three minutes after McCarthy's game-tying goal, as sophomore forward J.J. Evans found the back of the net at the 10:03 mark of the second period. Evans' tally began a barrage of four-straight Wesleyan goals that lasted until Evans lit the lamp again 11:44 into the third period, giving the Cardinals a commanding 6-2 lead.
Tufts added a score by freshman defenseman Doug Wilson 14 seconds later to provide the final 6-3 margin.
The Jumbos remain in last place in the NESCAC standings, with games against non-conference foes Salem St., Southern Maine, Babson, and UMass-Boston remaining on the schedule. Despite its abysmal season to this point, the Jumbos remain optimistic about ending their season on the right note.
"[The weekend] was definitely a step backward," Murphy said. "But it's a young team and we'll have to see what happens. We're staying positive and supporting one another, and we're going to have to try harder for the next game."
And though the results may suggest otherwise, the Jumbos believe they are making strides.
"We didn't let these losses get to us," O'Connell said. "We just picked up and started preparing for the next game. Even though we haven't won as many games as we'd like, we are improving with every game."
