Hockey season comes to a close with shutout loss at the hands of the No. 1 Trinity

The Jumbos’ season came to a close on Feb. 23 after a 3–0 shutout by the first-seeded Trinity Bantams (17–3–5) in the NESCAC tournament opener. Tufts finished the 2018–19 season with a 6–16–3 record, giving them a .300 winning percentage, an improvement from their .280 percentage last season.

Given their track record in their past seven matchups against the Hartford, Conn. squad (0–6–1), Tufts knew they were facing tough competition going into the game. The Saturday matchup between the Jumbos and Bantams was the third time the two teams had faced each other this season. Saturday’s outcome was identical to their first meeting when Trinity shut Tufts out with three goals to the Jumbos' zero. This was the sixth game of the season where the Jumbos failed to find the back of the net and also the sixth game of the season when the Bantams did not allow their opponent to score.

The extremely talented Bantams dominated their opponents for the majority of the season and were coming off six straight victories, including two wins over then top-ranked Wesleyan.

Regardless of who the Jumbos faced in goal, they knew that it was going to be difficult to score as Bantam's goaltenders, junior Tedy Loughborough and first-year Jonah Capriotti, entered the game with the first and third fewest goals against average in the NESCAC, respectively. In the end, Loughborough got the nod to start in net and the decision paid off for coach Matt Greason as Loughborough went the full 60 minutes without allowing a goal for the fourth time this season. In addition to the dominant goaltending, the Jumbos knew they would have their hands full in their own zone as the Bantams offense averaged 3.42 goals per game coming into the matchup, the highest average in the NESCAC and 23rd best in all of Div. III hockey.

“They are a really good team,” first-year forward Nick Schultze said when asked about facing the Bantams. “They’re big, they’re fast, they attacked us from all angles ... they were shooting everything, and I think that’s something that made them successful, probably throughout the year.”

Early in the first period, it seemed as though the entirety of the game would be a defensive battle as both teams failed to find scoring opportunities. The Bantams finally broke the scoring drought with just under three minutes remaining in the first period as first-year forward Lucas Michaud netted his 10th goal of the season. Michaud’s opening goal did not bode well for the Jumbos as they came into the game 0–12–1 this season when their opponents scored first.

“I thought we played well defensively,” Schultze added, regarding his team’s performance. “I thought we had a hard-fought game, but [we] just couldn’t score ... and that’s kind of been the problem all year.”

After getting outshot 12–7 in the first stanza, the Jumbos found just as little success early in the second period as the Bantams struck again when junior forward Adam Anderson rocked one into the back of the net for the fifth time this season to give the Bantams a 2–0 lead. If Tufts had any opportunity to get back in the game, it was in the last five minutes of the second period when their forecheck came on extremely strong, providing them with numerous scoring opportunities. But the Jumbos were unable to score in the period with only seven shots compared to the Bantams’ 10. To make matters worse, with 11 seconds remaining in the second period, first-year defenseman Trevor Spence took a tripping penalty in front of the net, giving Trinity a two-minute power play, the remaining 1:49 of which they took into the third period.

Trinity, with its NESCAC-leading power play ability, took advantage of the opportunity and increased the scoring margin to three with just over a minute into the third period when senior forward Ryan Pfeffer’s shot got past sophomore goaltender Drew Hotte. The score would not budge from that point on as the Tufts' attack fell flat and recorded only four shots throughout the period compared to Trinity’s 15. With the victory, the Bantams’ season continues and they host the remainder of the NESCAC tournament.

“We did not get the puck in behind their defenseman with the consistency we needed to,” coach Patrick Norton said regarding the offensive struggles. “They’re a good team defensively and so it’s tough, you have to make them work and we didn’t do that with enough consistency.”

Tufts’ lack of offensive production throughout the season was their Achilles’ heel as they scored a total of only 47 goals in their 25 games, the fewest in the NESCAC and 38 fewer than Trinity, the NESCAC scoring leaders. The Jumbos’ special teams were equally unsuccessful this season; their eight power play goals on 80 opportunities with a man advantage left them with the worst success rate in the NESCAC, and the 80th best rate in Div. III hockey.

“I thought that we showed some signs at times of what we are capable of offensively, which last year I don’t think we showed at all,” Norton said when asked about the team’s progress. “There were times where we showed what we can do offensively, I just think we have to put ourselves in that position more frequently.”

Despite a tough season, the future looks bright for the Jumbos as they will return all of their players next year aside from senior captain Clay Berger, who played the last of his 91 games in a Tufts jersey on Saturday, finishing his career with 25 points.

“To lose him obviously is tough,” Schultze said when asked about Berger’s impact. “But losing only one [senior] is definitely going to be an advantage for us to come in with basically the same group [next year], so that’ll be exciting.”