This weekend, the men's hockey team faced Conn. College twice and beat the Camels both times, improving their NESCAC mark to 8-5-1. The victories vaulted the Jumbos out of fourth place in the conference and into a third place tie with Middlebury, putting them in position to host a first-round game in the looming NESCAC tournament.
"When we met at the beginning of the year to discuss our goals, we decided our number one would be to make the NESCAC tournament with home game in the first round, then go from there," freshman defenseman Shawn Power said. "We've now put ourselves in a pretty good spot to accomplish that goal."
On Saturday, the two teams traveled to New London, Conn., for their second matchup of the home and home. The Jumbos notched a 4-2 victory to best the Camels and extend their current unbeaten streak to six games.
"We are starting to realize that we have the ability to beat the top level teams and have success in the playoffs," said sophomore forward Kyle Gallegos, the Jumbos' leading goal scorer after a six-point weekend.
Gallegos scored two first-period goals to kick off Tufts' scoring run early in the contest on Saturday. Conn. College sophomore Mike Sinsigalli answered with a goal at the 11:22 mark to cut the Jumbos' lead to one.
"The beginning of the game on Saturday was strange," Gallegos said. "There were a couple of penalties right away. Luckily we were able to get a couple of bounces our way and we capitalized."
In the second period, Sinsigalli added another tally to tie the game, but senior Evan Story connected with classmate and tri-captain Matt Amico at the 16:25 mark, firing a lead pass to Amico near the blue line. Amico then buried a shot past Camels goalkeeper Marcus Calvanico to put the Jumbos up for good.
Senior tri-captain goalkeeper Scott Barchard, who made 43 saves in the effort, made some of his biggest stops of the night with the clock winding down, including a rejection of Conn. College's Keith Veronesi with less than two minutes remaining.
With 32 seconds left in the contest, junior forward Dylan Plimmer capped off the Jumbos' weekend with an empty netter, raising the final margin of victory to two.
On Friday evening, the Jumbos hosted the Camels at the Malden Forum and dominated them in a 7-1 rout. Gallegos led the Jumbos with three first-period goals and an assist, while Barchard made 48 saves.
Gallegos scored just three minutes into the opening stanza to give Tufts an early advantage. Freshman forward Andrew White added a lamplighter of his own at the 10:52 mark to double the lead before Gallegos scored twice more in the first period, including a goal with one second left on the clock.
The Jumbos entered the second period with a 4-0 lead over the Camels, and the two teams traded goals in the period. Conn. College sophomore Kevin Reich momentarily broke the Jumbos' momentum with a goal at the 7:16 mark, but it took freshman defenseman Blake Edwards just over a minute to notch a fifth Jumbos tally, bringing the lead back up to four.
"We didn't plan to do anything differently than we normally do, but we came out hard and were able to score a couple quick ones which took them out of the game completely," Power said.
In the final period, Tufts capped off its commanding performance with two more goals, one from freshman Derrek Schartz and another from Amico, to pull ahead by six.
"I think we really came out ready to play and we were able to score four goals in the first period by just putting everything on net," Gallegos said. "After the first, we had plenty of confidence and were able to bury a few more."
The game got chippy in the final minutes, as Camels senior forward Julien Boutet was called for intent to injure and disqualified from the game, and Tufts freshman Salvatore Revetta was boxed for contact to the head. But despite the flurry of penalties and high tempers, the 7-1 score held as time wound down.
"Toward the end of the game on Friday things were getting pretty physical," Gallegos said. "I think they weren't too happy losing 7-1, and they took some of that frustration out on us, but we held our ground and didn't sink to their level."
This weekend, the Jumbos travel to Amherst and Hamilton for two key rematches of earlier NESCAC contests. In their first meetings, the Jumbos defeated Hamilton by a 4-3 margin, but were routed 7-1 by the Lord Jeffs at home.
"Lately we've been finding ways to win late in the game [when we're] on the road, so hopefully we can keep that up and make a statement with four more road points," Power said. "Amherst and Hamilton are both strong teams, but if we play our game I think we'll be able to take both games."
