After putting together 112 minutes of dominant play over the weekend, the ice hockey team was incapable of holding on for just eight more.
Eight additional minutes of disciplined, clean play was all the Jumbos would have needed to escape Manchester, N.H., with two crucial early-season victories and the PAL/Stovepipe Cup trophy.
But it was UMass Boston junior Kris Kranzky who stole the show, scoring twice in the game's final three minutes to rally the Beacons from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Jumbos 4-3 on Sunday in the tournament's championship game.
Up 2-1 near the midway point in the third period, the Jumbos were controlling the play and winning the possession battle. Sophomore forward Zach Diaco then buried the team's fifth power play goal of the weekend at 8:03 to put the team up by a two-goal margin, seemingly ensuring a win to cap off the youthful team's encouraging effort.
Yet a minor holding penalty at 11:54 proved pivotal in determining the Jumbos' fortunes, as Beacon freshman forward Chris Wyman subsequently tallied a power play goal of his own at 12:13 to cut Tufts' lead to one goal and shift the momentum in the Beacons' favor for good.
"We took a penalty, and it was one which I thought was a pretty tough call," coach Brian Murphy said. "I'm not sure that it was a penalty, but they got a power play goal, and I think it put us on our heels for the rest of the game. We just have to learn from these mistakes, being a younger team, and unfortunately, we're going to learn the hard way here early on."
From there it would be all Kranzky, who tallied the equalizer at 17:11 and sneaked the game-winner by freshman goalie Scott Barchard with only two seconds remaining on the game clock.
"I think what you saw was our inexperience catching up to us a little bit," junior co-captain Dave Antonelli said. "It's early in the season, and we're still learning how to win those tight games and close those types of games out. I think with time, you'll see us learn to be able to close those games out. It was a combination of a couple of bad bounces and a couple of mistakes that went their way. But we can't make excuses for anyone -- we just didn't finish the effort."
Prior to the team's third-frame letdown on Sunday, the Jumbos rode solid contributions from a host of players to an 8-2 goal advantage through their first five-plus periods of play during the tournament.
The Jumbos started their tourney run off well, taking down Plymouth State 5-1 in dominating fashion in their opening-round tilt, thanks to the exciting emergence of a couple of the team's younger players.
Sophomore forward Tom Derosa, a Merrimack transfer, tallied two points -- a goal and an assist -- in each game over the weekend, while freshman Nick Resor notched a goal in each contest as well.
But Derosa and Resor were not alone in their contributions, and the squad pointed to its scoring depth and balance, as well as to the success of the power play unit, as the keys to its success on Saturday and most of Sunday.
"Each of our lines were contributing and chipping in on Saturday," Antonelli said. "Some guys had some nice finishes and made some nice plays, but having a very balanced attack and good team depth will be huge for us down the line because we're not going to have a few stars leading the way for us on offense. We worked hard to win the possession battles and maintain control of the pace of the game, and it paid off on Saturday and for the majority of [Sunday's tournament final], too."
The team's power play unit proved crucial in Saturday's victory, converting four goals on nine opportunities and contributing the team's final tally in Sunday's defeat.
"Our power play is pretty good right now -- we like the way that's working," Murphy said. "We're not standing still, and we're getting into open spots. We've been practicing that a lot, so we were glad to see that. We relied on it in Saturday's game for sure, and we forced them to push and grab us a little bit and get away from their game."
In spite of Sunday's gut-wrenching loss, which brought the Jumbos to 1-3 on the early 2008-09 campaign, the team remains satisfied with its progression early on.
"Aside from the last couple minutes on Sunday, we played pretty well overall," Murphy said. "We're just so young that we need to learn how to put together a complete effort."
The Jumbos will get their first chance at redemption when they open up their home slate of action Friday against St. Anselm in Malden. That game will be followed up by a Saturday afternoon battle against New England College.
