Last weekend, Tufts men’s ice hockey played two drastically different home games against Hamilton on Friday night and Amherst on Saturday. Tufts lost 6–1 against Hamilton, but returned to Malden Valley Forum on Saturday with a new energy to beat Amherst 5–2.
On Friday against Hamilton, Tufts struggled to keep possession of the puck, get off good shots and ultimately find the back of the net to score.
“We were turning the puck over way too much, and [Hamilton is] too good of a team to make that many mistakes and not expect them to capitalize on it offensively,” senior forward Tyler Sedlak said. “We’ll learn from that, and we’ll play them again in a couple of weeks, and hopefully not give them that many chances off of our own mistakes.”
Hamilton scored two goals in the first period, bringing Tufts to a tough deficit right from the beginning of the game. After Hamilton scored another two goals in the second period, junior forward Max Resnick scored with an assist from Sedlak to keep the game from being a shutout.
“Friday did not go as planned,” Sedlak explained. “We had too many turnovers that cost us, obviously, a couple of goals, and then we just couldn’t really find the back of the net. We couldn’t score like we hoped for.”
After Friday’s tough loss, the team went to work on bringing their best playing to Saturday’s matchup against Amherst.
“It’s never good to be beat like that,” sophomore forward Trace Norwell said. “We were a little more fired up [on Saturday] … We wanted to prove that [Friday] was a fluke. I think that was the biggest thing, that we were more ready to play; we were engaged.”
Sedlak explained that Tufts went into Saturday with a better mindset and a renewed focus on what they needed to do to win.
“We went into Saturday with a little bit of a fresh start,” Sedlak said. “We knew what we had been doing the past couple of games that had been working, and what has been sort of hurting us.”
The first period of this game was almost scoreless, but senior Harrison Bazianos scored with just a second left to go in the period, bringing the Jumbos to a 1–0 lead to start the second period. In the second period, sophomore forward Marcus Sang scored with assists by first-year defenceman Kodi Dotterer and sophomore forward Mason Daignault. Sedlak scored another last second goal near the end of the second period with an assist by Resnick. Along with scoring, the Jumbos were able to stay more in control of the game in order to make better shots. Norwell explained that the whole team worked better on Saturday in order to bring their win.
“We turned into more of a shoot first mindset so a lot of the times, … we would come down, try to make a play, but in the Amherst game, we would come over the blue line, immediately [shoot] the puck, and [get] to the net,” Norwell said. “Our team did a great job of getting pucks through, our goalie made a couple of unbelievable saves … to keep us in the lead. Our forwards did everything we could to get the puck to the net.”
Resnick explained that the Jumbos hope to continue to keep their offense simple in order to make more shots.
“I think we have got to stay on the structure we played with on Saturday, which is just … playing hard, being simple with the puck, and not overcomplicating things,” Resnick said.
The third period continued with a goal from Brennan Horn assisted by Norwell. Resnick scored an additional empty net goal near the beginning of the third period to bring the Jumbos to their 5–2 win.
“[On] Saturday, I thought we just competed really hard, and finally put together a full 60 minutes, which I don’t think we’ve done all year, so it was just a great team effort all around,” Resnick said.
Along with the impressive offensive effort from Tufts, the defense and goaltending on Saturday afternoon contributed greatly to their win.
“[Gustave Bylin] was great,” Resnick said. “He stood on his head, and stole us the game which was what we needed.”
Next weekend, the Jumbos will play against Wesleyan, who they beat 5–3 in the first game of the season, and Trinity, who they lost to 6–3 earlier in the season. Tufts hopes to use their win against Amherst to shift their momentum for the rest of the season after a few tough losses in the previous weeks. The rest of the season will be extremely important in determining positions for the NESCAC playoffs. Right now, Tufts is ranked ninth in the NESCAC and hopes to improve their position in the next games.
“We’re obviously in a tight race here for [a] playoff position, and the next couple weekends are extremely important for us, and every win matters so much in this league,” Sedlak said.
Resnick explained that though the team may have had some difficulties he’s optimistic about the rest of the season.
“It’s a long season; we went through a little skid there,” Resnick said. “I know we have what it takes in our locker room, so I’m excited about next weekend.”
