The Tufts hockey team closed the regular season with two comeback victories to clinch the last remaining spot in the NESCAC playoffs. The Jumbos' first winning streak in over a month appears to be at just the right time.
The Jumbos confirmed a playoff spot with a 4-2 win at UMass Boston on Friday night, but were not ready to sit back, as they pulled out a 3-2 overtime win over Babson on Saturday afternoon for their 11th win of the season.
With a playoff spot already secured, the story on Saturday centered on two outstanding performances by a pair of freshmen in goalie Scott Barchard and forward Nick Resor.
Having broken the Jumbos' single-season saves record the previous weekend, Barchard added another 59 saves to his already impressive tally. Barchard's 59 saves came one short of the program record, while his 812 saves on the season and a .926 save percentage place him well atop the record books.
"Scotty comes up big in big games and he stood on his head this weekend," junior co-captain Dave Antonelli said.
No less impressive was Resors' hat trick, which carried the Jumbos to a win and vaulted him to the top of the team's scoring chart with 16 goals on the season.
"We're starting to get a lot of chemistry together," Resor said. "A lot of my goals were just because of good passes from my teammates."
Resor was first to strike Saturday when he scored at 2:21 of the first period on the power play after pulling the puck out of a battle in front of the Beavers' net and ripping it over senior goalie Skylar Nipps, who finished the game with 18 saves. But Babson got even 10 minutes later when senior co-captain Brad Baldelli netted a wrap-around goal.
Babson took its only lead of the game halfway through the second frame on a goal from freshman Sean Roche. The Beavers held onto their lead into the final minutes of action, but with just over five minutes left, Resor buried a one-timer on a pass from sophomore Tom Derosa to knot the score at 2-2. The assist was Derosa's second of the game and his team-leading 28th point of the year.
With the score frozen at two apiece, the teams needed an extra stanza to decide the game, and it was once again Resor who came up big for the Jumbos.
With 1:37 left in overtime, the Beavers pulled their goaltender, wanting only a win in order to secure home-ice advantage for the first round of next week's ECAC East playoffs. Despite the extra man, the move backfired when Resor completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal with less than a minute to go.
"[Nick] causes major matchup problems for people because he's so big and so strong," Coach Brian Murphy said. "If he gets a step on you, you're not going to stop him."
"Nick has been great all year," Antonelli said. "He has great physical tools. He is a good finisher and is responsible in all the zones."
Friday's more crucial victory over UMass Boston saw a similar cast playing major roles, with Barchard posting 53 saves and Resor registering a goal and an assist in what proved to be a five-point weekend for him.
With the chance at their first playoff birth since 2004-05 on the line, the Jumbos were ready to give it everything for a win.
"We had to start treating every game like a playoff game," Derosa said.
With that in mind, the Jumbos struck first midway through the first frame on a power-play goal by sophomore Andy Davis. The lead did not last through the period, though, as UMass freshman Wayne Sands tied the score with 45 seconds to go.
The host Beacons jumped ahead at the 11:36 mark of the second period on a goal by sophomore Matt Atsoff, but the Jumbos rebounded just 56 seconds later when their top offensive unit clicked once again with Resor feeding Derosa for his 15th goal of the year.
The teams were stuck in a 2-2 stalemate for most of the third period, with Barchard posting a solid 19 saves in the final frame, before the Jumbos buried the decisive goal. With less than seven minutes left in the game, sophomore Mike Vitale netted the game-winner and his fourth goal of the season to clinch the Jumbos' a playoff spot.
"Mike did a great job driving the net," said Antonelli, who had an assist on the game-winning goal. "It was not the prettiest goal, but it was obviously a big one."
With 2:47 left in the game, the Beacons pulled junior goaltender Ryan Donovan, but the move worked in the Jumbos' favor instead as Resor scored his first of two empty-net goals on the weekend to ice the win.
"There was a little pressure not having made the playoffs in a while," Resor said. "Everything was in our hands."
"We're finding ways to win games, which is the most important thing," Barchard said. "We wanted to turn out a win on Friday. Saturday was still a game we wanted to win, but we were a little more relaxed after clinching a playoff spot."
At 11-11-2, the Jumbos have posted their best record since going 12-12-1 in 2004-05, which was also the last time they made the NESCAC tournament.
"The difference this year is that our locker was much better," Murphy said. "It's a terrific group of guys. Going to the rink every day has been a pleasure."
Now 3-0-1 in their last four games, the Jumbos have established some momentum to carry into the first round of NESCACs on Saturday, when they will face top seed Amherst. Despite the difficult match-up, the Jumbos are taking confidence in their newfound ability to win games on the road and the consistent play of their starting goaltender."When you have a goalie that's playing well, you can beat anybody," Murphy said. "That's how we feel right now."
