It was an up-and-down weekend for the Tufts hockey team: an overtime loss, a commanding victory and a crushing defeat. The weekend’s two losses against Hamilton and a win against Amherst bring Tufts’ record to 5–13–2, with just one weekend remaining in the season.
On Friday, Tufts hosted Hamilton, losing 4–3 in overtime. The game was closely contested through the second period though Hamilton pulled ahead 3–1 in the final seconds of the second period. But two Tufts goals scored by senior defenseman Tom Tresca and sophomore forward Fisher Shea in the first seven minutes of the third period tied the score.
A roughing penalty on the Jumbos at the end of the third period gave the Continentals a man advantage to begin overtime, and they capitalized on it. With control of the puck, the Continentals fired off several shots in the first minute of the extra period before Nick Ritugliano found the back of the net to end the game, 4–3.
Despite the loss, head coach Patrick Norton said he thought the team played well overall, which continued into the next night’s Senior Night 8–5 upset victory against Amherst.
Sophomore forward Aidan Lovett started the scoring for the Jumbos just over two minutes into the game, and by the first part of the second period, four other Jumbos scored to give the team a 5–1 lead. The scoring fest continued for both teams into the third period, but the Mammoths couldn’t catch the Jumbos.
Eight different Jumbos scored each goal. Amherst did outshoot Tufts 46–25, but senior goalie Josh Sarlo made 41 saves.
Norton was impressed by how the Jumbos played in the game against Amherst.
“Our guys really competed hard, and I thought [they] had great focus and stayed within the program despite the fact that there were some challenges,” Norton said. “Offensively and defensively, I liked the way we moved the puck and I liked the way we attacked the net. I thought there were even more opportunities to shoot the puck.”
Things went south the next day, in another matchup against Hamilton, which had been rescheduled from earlier in the season.
The Jumbos allowed five goals in the second period — including three scored within a minute. Senior forward Angus Scott scored the lone goal for the Jumbos with fewer than five minutes left in the game.
Norton offered his assessment of what he said was the only bad period of hockey the team played over the weekend.
“Too many turnovers,” Norton said. “We had opportunities to make plays, and we just turned it over at inopportune times, and it got a little contagious there.”
Sophomore goalie Peyton Durand, who started in the net for just the fifth time this season in the second Hamilton match up, agreed that there was room for improvement in regard to the disappointing second period.
“They basically just dominated us,” Durand said. “For me, I could have been a little better in that second period, but we were just tired. Playing three NESCAC games [is] really hard; three in a row is even tougher.”
With the mixed bag of a weekend, the Jumbos now find themselves ranked No. 8 out of 10 NESCAC teams.
This year, all 10 teams will qualify for the NESCAC tournament given the effects of COVID-19 on scheduling. While that’s good news for the Jumbos because they don’t need to fight to qualify for a playoff seed, Norton said seeding is not a concern or even a topic of conversation for his young team.
“For us, it’s just been about focusing on getting better every game, trying to get guys to gain confidence, trying to get guys to feel better about how they’re playing,” Norton said. "We want to be playing our best hockey regardless of what seed we are.”
The regular season concludes this Friday and Saturday with games at Colby and Bowdoin, respectively.
