As Olympic hockey in Vancouver took a break on Saturday, the hockey team took to some Olympic−sized ice when it visited Middlebury at Kenyon Arena for the first round of the NESCAC postseason tournament. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, Tufts struggled to find its Olympic spirit and fell 6−2 to the No. 2−seeded Panthers, ending its season and hopes for a longer playoff run.
After its most successful regular season campaign to date since joining the NESCAC in 2001, Tufts was hoping to reach another milestone this weekend with its first conference tournament victory. And with the 3−3 tie they earned against the Panthers in their season opener on Nov. 20, the Jumbos were confident that they could handle the team ranked as the No. 5 Div. III team in the nation in the latest U.S. College Hockey online poll.
And when junior Tom Derosa came up with the puck after a scramble in front of the Middlebury net and put the Jumbos up 1−0 just 3:39 into the game, it looked like that confidence might not have been unfounded.
But the Panthers would not be so easily tamed, and at 12:32 in the first period, Middlebury freshman Mathieu Dubuc knotted the score on a breakaway goal. Just two minutes later, Jak Knelman pulled Middlebury ahead 2−1 with the assist going to Dubuc, who finished the game with a hat trick and one assist.
"That first goal was big for us," said junior tri−captain Dylan Cooper, who picked up the assist on Derosa's tally. "But what happened was they wore us down. They played a puck−pursuit game, and we weren't used to that. We need to get used to playing a higher tempo game."
With the score at 2−1 after the first intermission, the Panthers battered the Jumbos with shots as they tried to break open the game. Sophomore goaltender Scott Barchard remained steady, though, relinquishing just one more goal in the middle frame and made 17 saves to keep the Jumbos in contention and down just 3−1 going into the final stanza. He finished the game with 50 saves as Tufts was outshot 56−14.
Despite Barchard's efforts, the Panthers were able to pull away with a barrage of shots in the third period that led to three goals. The Jumbos were able to score only once more in the contest, and by that time, it was too late.
"It was definitely a disappointing way to end the season," Cooper said. "We don't feel like we played as well as we could have."
"They were better than us in every aspect of the game," coach Brian Murphy added. "We needed to play almost perfectly, and we didn't do that."
It was in the final stanza that things started to go wrong for Tufts. At six minutes into the period, Middlebury added two more goals to its tally in a span of just 42 seconds to take a 5−1 lead and effectively put the game out of reach.
"When [Middlebury] gets momentum, they're really hot and they're all over you and it's hard to counteract that," Cooper said. "You have to comeback with a strong shift and we didn't do that."
At 10:38, junior Conor Pieri finally got the Jumbos back on the board with his second goal of the season, but it was too late for Tufts. Soon after, Dubuc completed his hat trick to give the Panthers back their four−goal cushion at 6−2.
"We got beat soundly," Murphy said. "They were just the better team from the top down and we didn't do what we needed to do to win."
Part of the problem for Tufts came in an area where the team has performed exceptionally well all season: the penalty kill. Prior to Saturday's game, the Jumbos had killed off 107 of 122 penalties — an impressive 87.7 percent success rate. Against Middlebury, however, they allowed two power−play goals on six opportunities, while they were unable to convert on any of their three man−advantage chances.
"We knew coming into it that the special teams battle was going to be a big factor," Cooper said. "And they won the special teams battle and that's maybe what the determined the game."
With the win, the Panthers improved to 17−4−4 on the season and advanced to the semifinals of the NESCAC Tournament, where they will face No. 5 seed Trinity, which advanced in a 2−1 overtime thriller over No. 4 Amherst. The Panthers are now one step closer to their eighth conference title and to extending their perfect streak of championship game appearances, which dates back to the birth of the NESCAC tournament in 2000.
The Jumbos, meanwhile, end their season at 12−10−3 — their first winning season since 2000−01.
"I can't say I'm disappointed in the season as a whole, but as a team, the guys understood that winning a NESCAC playoff game was our goal, and we didn't do that, so that's disappointing," Murphy said. "[Since last season] our expectations have risen, and we feel like we can take that next step now and win a playoff game and make it to the NESCAC finals."
