Ice Hockey | Jumbos butt Rams out of the way in 4-1 victory Tuesday

After faltering in a pair of tough NESCAC contests over the weekend, the men's hockey team is looking to get back on track towards a playoff run.
    The Jumbos took their first big step forward towards achieving that goal on Tuesday night with an important 4-1 victory over non-conference opponent Suffolk University at Steriti Rink in Boston. The road victory, only the team's third win away from the Malden Forum on the season, pushed their overall mark to 8-9-1 and sets up this weekend's slate of action against conference foes Trinity and Wesleyan as paramount in determining the Jumbos' postseason fate.
    "It was an important win because we need to keep the momentum up heading into this weekend's conference games," junior defenseman Matt Ryder said. "These next three weekends will be really important in determining our chances of getting a good seed in the playoffs, and we needed to get back on the right track coming into those games. Especially with two NESCAC teams coming up this weekend, this was a win that we needed to get to keep the team focused on our goals and earning a spot in the postseason."
    Entering last night's contest, the Jumbos had been outshot 654 to 512 by their opponents through their first 18 contests. Despite a hard-fought second period that saw the Rams rip 20 shots on freshman goaltender Scott Barchard in comparison to the Jumbos' six attempts, the visitors were still able to hold on for the key victory.
    "[Suffolk] is a hard-working team, but skating-wise we've got much better team skating ability," junior defenseman and co-captain Dave Antonelli said. "We were just trying to slow the game down and handle the puck too much in the second period. We were focusing on trying to make too many skill plays instead of the simpler plays that were the key for us in the first."
    While the game was originally scheduled for a 7 p.m. puck drop at Boston University, earlier in the day the location was shifted to Steriti Rink in the North End, and the start time was pushed up to 5:20 p.m.
    "It was a last minute change and it threw off people's schedules a bit," Antonelli said. "Although it's definitely not an excuse, it's a reality of the situation and it might've affected us a bit. If you ask anyone on the team, we had much better hockey in us. It was just frustrating [the way the second period went], but it was important for us to get back on the winning track."
    Tufts had an important lead to protect heading into the Rams' barrage. Junior forward Mike Fitoussi opened the scoring with a tally at 11:51 with helpers from both Antonelli and Ryder, and sophomore forward Tom Derosa, the Jumbos' leading scorer with 11 goals on the season, pushed the lead to 2-0 just 22 seconds into the second frame on an assist from sophomore defenseman Fredrik Mellgren.
    The remaining time in the second period was riddled with Ram scoring chances on Barchard, who backed 36 saves on the evening. The team's budding star, who boasts a .919 save percentage -- good for fifth best in the NESCAC -- was a bulwark in cage. Barchard stopped every shot he faced and held the score at 2-0 into the third period.
    "Guys are making simple plays and getting the job done," Antonelli said. "Scott has bailed us out when we've needed the big save, but as a group we've been successful because on the whole we've made the team commitment on the defensive end."
    The game's third period featured vastly cleaner play, with none of the game's 14 penalties coming in the final frame. With less than eight minutes remaining in the contest, Rams junior forward Niles Moore finally beat Barchard on assists from a pair of seniors, forward John Rocchio and defenseman Mitch Sabo.
    Determined to lock up the win, the Jumbos pushed the goal differential back to two at 17:40 on a goal by junior forward Joe Rosano. Freshman Nick Resor sealed the Rams' fate on his ninth goal of the season with an empty-netter as the remaining ticks expired on the game clock.
    "When we focused on throwing the puck in deep and simply working for the puck, then we got somewhere," Antonelli said. "Certainly by the end of the game we had gotten back to the simpler style of hockey [we were playing in the first], and we were wearing them down and taking their legs away. We need to focus on doing the little things right to continue to be successful in the future."
    The Jumbos travel to Hartford to take on fourth-ranked Trinity on Saturday night before heading to Middletown for a Sunday matinee against the NESCAC's weakest, Wesleyan. Tufts currently ranks eighth in the NESCAC standings, and the pair of conference games will certainly weigh heavily on the team's postseason plans.