Two weeks ago, the hockey team was sitting in fifth place in the NESCAC and hoping to head north to make some noise against the top teams in the conference. Instead, the Jumbos find themselves in jeopardy of missing the NESCAC Tournament after dropping weekend games at Amherst and Hamilton.
A 6-1 loss to Hamilton on Saturday afternoon might have been the low point of Tufts' season. Hamilton, 3-14-1, sits in last place in the conference.
Tufts had numerous opportunities to do some damage in the opening frame, including four power play chances. However, the Continentals, the most penalized team in the conference, killed all eight penalties that they committed. Tufts outshot Hamilton 13-12 in the period, but goalie Mark Donovan was stellar all game to record his first collegiate win in net.
"Unfortunately, we just really couldn't put a lot of things together," senior tri-captain Joe Cappellano said. "The effort was there, but we weren't finishing on scoring opportunities. We couldn't bury it."
Hamilton took advantage of all of Tufts' missed opportunities when freshman Joe Buicko broke the scoreless tie just 57 seconds into the second period. The Continentals then padded their lead when sophomore Jerome Wallace netted his ninth goal of the season. Wallace then added an assist when Hamilton scored its third goal of the period on a power play at the 6:25 mark. Tufts finally got on the board when sophomore Joe Rosano found the back of the net, but it was too little too late.
Hamilton continued its onslaught to start the third period with two more goals in the first six minutes. Wallace notched his third point of the game on an assist of Hamilton's fourth goal. The Continentals added a meaningless power play goal with three seconds left in the game to make the final score 6-1.
"It's pretty disappointing," senior tri-captain Ross Gimbel said. "They're last place in the league. They only had one league win coming into the game. We were pretty disappointed, but that was [in the past], so we just need to forget and focus on next week."
Donovan saved 30 shots, while Tufts senior Issa Azat stopped 32. Azat stood in goal for the injured James Kalec, who recently set the school's all-time saves mark. The loss dropped Tufts to 6-11-1 overall and 4-8-1 in league play.
Some of the sloppy play may have been attributed to fatigue, as Jumbos had played Amherst the night before, and then had to make the long haul up to Clinton, N.Y. After tough losses last weekend against NESCAC powers Colby and Bowdoin, the Jumbos were looking for a big win in another stronghold at Amherst, but to no avail. Despite a hard-fought game, Tufts ultimately fell by a score of 3-2.
The Lord Jeffs, 10-5-3, rank in the top half of the conference in power play and penalty kill percentage, whereas the Jumbos rank near the bottom in both categories. The game played Friday night could be told by these statistics.
The Jumbos killed their first two penalties of the game, but Amherst finally capitalized on the power play when junior defenseman Jeff Landers smashed a slap shot from the blue line that whistled through the legs of Azat at the 15:10 mark in the first.
The Jumbos responded with an impressive second period. Although the team put only seven shots on goal, it scored twice to take the lead. Sophomore Doug Wilson converted on a 5-on-3 with a slapshot into the top corner, helped by an assist from senior tri-captain Greg O'Connell. Later, during a 4-on-3 advantage, senior Kurt Hertzog netted his seventh goal of the season to put the Jumbos on top 2-1. Freshmen Fredrik Mellgren and Lindsay Walker assisted on the goal.
But the third period would belong to the Lord Jeffs. Amherst tied the game during a power play 1:48 into the final period when senior forward Andrew Schremp corralled junior Rylan Burns's slapshot and beat Azat with a backhander. Soon after, Amherst had a 5-on-3 advantage after Tufts committed its eighth penalty of the game. Junior Joel Covelli, who assisted on the Jeffs' first goal, found junior Brendan Powers, who in turn found the top corner of the net off a shot from the right circle.
"It was a little frustrating putting ourselves in positions to win games but just not getting it done," Cappellano said. "We actually had the lead going into the third, but there were a couple tough penalty calls. They scored all their goals on the power play, 5-on-3, and 5-on-4."
Tufts had two more power-play advantages in the latter part of the period but finished 2-for-6 in the man-up situations, which proved to be the difference in the game.
"[Penalties] definitely have helped and hurt our team," Gimbel said. "Amherst gave away two power play goals, but still we're taking too many penalties. We can't give away penalties to teams in the NESCAC who have such strong power-play units."
Next weekend, Tufts returns home for games against Wesleyan and Trinity, two games the Jumbos cannot afford to lose.
"We still think we'll make the playoffs," Cappellano said. "It's a tight league, and after every game the standings change. We just have to focus and get points when we can."
