After a slow 1-3 start to its season, the ice hockey team seems to have turned things around, stringing together two consecutive wins this past weekend -- a feat it accomplished only once last season -- defeating both New England College (NEC) and St. Anselm at home to improve to 3-3 overall.
Saturday afternoon's 3-2 win against the NEC Pilgrims was one of Tufts' tightest games of the season so far, with the deciding goal tallied with less than 10 minutes remaining in the third period. With the score knotted at 2-2 since the first period, the final frame was marked by extremely physical play from both the Jumbos and the Pilgrims.
But at 11:41 of the third period, senior forward Jared Melillo buried the game-winning goal for his first tally of the season. After Pilgrim sophomore goalie Aaron Harvey stopped a shot from the opposite point, Melillo picked up the rebound and took advantage of a wide-open net.
"[The goal] was just a good, team effort," Melillo said.
Tufts then had to fight off the surging Pilgrims for the rest of the period, relying on its defense and solid physical play to keep the puck away from Jumbo freshman goalie Scott Barchard. But the first-year proved critical to holding the lead, posting 37 saves on the game and 14 in the final frame, including several after New England pulled its own goalie with 1:35 remaining.
"We are really bonding as a defensive unit right now," Barchard said. "We have been blocking shots since day one, and it's really a whole unit effort."
"[New England] is a big, physical team, so it is important to play physically all the time too," coach Brian Murphy said. "We were finishing checks all the time."
Tufts jumped on the Pilgrims early in the game with a goal just 3:29 into the first period, as sophomore forward Dylan Cooper scored his second goal of the season on a one-timer from sophomore forward Lindsay Walker and junior co-captain Myles Neumann.
The Jumbos made it a 2-0 game just 1:33 later when they were able to dig the puck out of a tussle behind the Pilgrims' net and feed sophomore forward Tom Derosa at the opposite side of the box, allowing him to bury the puck in its far side.
Tufts would not enjoy its cushion for long, however, as New England junior captain Trevor Turner scored a power-play goal to cut the lead in half at 13:50 in the first period.
The Jumbo defense started to break down after the goal, and New England capitalized: Barely two minutes after Turner's tally, Tufts coughed up the puck deep in its own zone, and Pilgrims sophomore Simon Laudon-Sorlin easily netted it over a sprawled-out Barchard to even the score.
Both offenses were quiet for the entire second frame, but neither physical play nor penalties were lacking, as the Pilgrims registered 12 penalties to the Jumbos' 10. The game also saw the teams go four-on-four on two occasions, when players were called for matching penalties.
Friday night's 4-1 home-opener win against St. Anselm marked Tufts' first against the Hawks since November 2001. The Jumbos' power play struggled during the contest, failing to capitalize on a five-on-three early in the first period and going 0-5 on the night. The penalty kill, on the other hand, proved once again to be one of the team's strengths, killing five of six penalties in the game and keeping the Hawks off the board for the entire first period despite three Tufts penalties.
"Today the penalty-kill picked us up, because our power-play fell a little flat," Murphy said. "We need to work on special teams."
Freshman and scoring leader Nick Resor put the Jumbos on the board first, burying a rebound at 13:32 of the first period for his fourth goal of the season.
Barchard played flawlessly in the first period, stopping a number of offensive flurries by the Hawks and fending off all 12 shots he faced.
"I just came here to win games," Barchard said. "There is no added pressure."
In the second period, the Jumbos' offense began meshing well, and just 35 seconds into the period, Cooper scored his first goal of the year on a two-on-one, waiting until the last second before ripping the puck over St. Anslem goalie Alex Wyse.
Although the Jumbos kept the pressure on the Hawks, outshooting them 28-23 on the game, Hawks sophomore Nick Wheeler cut the lead to 2-1 on a power-play goal at 9:27 in the second with a shot from the point through heavy traffic in front of the net. Still, that was the only shot to beat Barchard the rest of the game.
"[Barchard] has played well," Murphy said. "He really picked it up tonight."
Tufts' offense responded quickly to quell any attempt at evening the score, as senior defender Phil Clark dug the puck out of the corner and fed Walker in the slot for an insurance goal at 11:21, making it a two-goal game again at 3-1. The remainder of the second period and all of the third were very tight and physical, with the teams combining for another seven penalties, but both offenses remained quiet.
St. Anselm gave it a last shot to get back in the game by pulling their goalie with 1:26 remaining, but the Jumbos successfully kept them away from Barchard and even added a little more insurance with an empty-net goal by freshman forward Matt Amico with 0:39 left in the contest.
"They were pressing the neutral zone well," Barchard said.
The pair of wins was key for Tufts, improving its NESCAC/ECAC East record to 2-2 after the slow start to the season. The Jumbos will look to keep their momentum going tomorrow night at home, when they face off against the Framingham State Rams in a home non-conference contest, Tufts' last game before winter recess.
