Tufts men’s ice hockey took a road trip out west for a pair of conference matchups against league-leading Hamilton as well as Amherst, returning to Medford with a win and a loss in the penultimate regular season weekend. The Jumbos made their first stop in Clinton, N.Y. to face the Continentals on Friday for the second time this season with aspirations for revenge after being handily beat 6–1 on Jan. 17. Tufts settled the score with a 2–1 victory behind a strong performance by junior goalie Gus Bylin in net and offensive production from the senior forward duo of Harrison Bazianos and Brennan Horn. Hamilton, ranked No. 9 nationally, came into the contest off of back-to-back uncharacteristically shaky performances, including a close shootout win over Colby and a 7–5 loss to Bowdoin. Tufts took advantage of the hiccup in the Hamilton momentum, scoring twice off of just 24 shots to Hamilton’s 36. After a scoreless first period, Horn caught Hamilton goalie Charlie Archer off-guard with a bouncing shot that snuck through just under six minutes into the second period. The Jumbos kept rolling, with Bazianos sinking the game’s second goal just three minutes later on an assist from first-year defender Drew Pitts. Bylin played 40 minutes of shutout hockey, saving 35 of the 36 shots on net with Hamilton unable to notch a goal until the third period.
“For me, I always try to focus on one shot at a time, so in my head, I’m telling myself, ‘Okay, just focus on the next shot.’ Whatever’s happened in the game prior, whether it be I got scored on the shot before or whatever, I try to throw that out of my brain and have a short memory,” Bylin said. “It’s just taking it one shot at a time and not focusing on the whole game necessarily, but small spurts.”
Bylin’s performance punctuated an outstanding defensive effort by Tufts that included blocked shots by junior forward Max Resnick and senior forward Tyler Sedlak, limiting Hamilton’s space for high-quality scoring opportunities. Bylin and the squad watched film of their previous loss to the Continentals in order to solidify their approach; the focus on defensive domination with trust that the offense would find a way proved successful.
“We’ve had more of a defensive mindset … that was big in our game plan against them,” Bylin said. “In general, our defense has been really good, the seven guys that have been playing, people just really bear down on focusing on the defensive side of the puck … It definitely helps me out, and they’ve been great in front of me, so I think to win 2–1 against Hamilton, it’s a testament to them and how they played as well because they didn’t really give up any grade-A chances that were very good scoring chances, everything was perimeter.”
Despite the rush of besting the Continentals, the Jumbos came out a bit flat the following day against the Mammoths, who scored 3 points in the third period to solidify their 5–1 victory. Tufts’ only goal came from first-year forward Rory Andriole early in the first period, while Amherst goalie Andrew Palena proceeded to stuff Tufts’ offense for the rest of the contest. The teams matched up nearly perfectly in shot totals, with Amherst sending 36 shots on net to Tufts’ 35, but long possessions allowed Amherst’s offense to create better quality chances and pull away in the final frame.
“I think we got pressured into our zone a lot. … I think their time of possession in our zone was probably a lot higher,” Bylin said. “I thought we had our chances, I think their goalie stepped up … And I think coming off a great win against a top team like Hamilton, it’s tough to [recover] … you get maybe a little complacent.”
With the loss, Tufts remains at 22 points, tied for No. 5 in the conference with Middlebury. As postseason play approaches, Bylin reflected on the team’s growth throughout the season.
“I think early on, we didn’t really have much of a team identity … I think since [winter] break and since we came back from Tampa, we’ve had way more of a team identity to be more defensive, to establish hitting intensity because I think when you hit them a lot, they tend to make soft plays, and they don’t really want to go into the corners with our guys because we’re a pretty strong team,” he said. “I think now with that defensive mindset, we know our identity, we know how we have to play every night. … I think if we can be a hard team to play against and do all the little things it takes to win, I think we’d be a really tough team to beat in the playoffs.”
Tufts will face rematches with Colby and Bowdoin for the final two games of the regular season — two teams that Tufts has not seen since the first week of December 2024. They are aiming for their first NESCAC sweep of the season and the privilege of hosting a conference tournament quarterfinal.
“Obviously it’s a huge weekend. I think it’s going to feel kind of like two playoff games just in terms of what they mean for the home playoff game: if we get one or if we don’t. A sweep would be awesome because we haven’t had a NESCAC sweep yet this year,” Bylin said “I think, especially these last few weeks, we’ve been going 1–1 every weekend, [with] one good performance, one shaky performance, so if we get that consistency going and come out with two really good performances, I think that’ll give us a ton of confidence going into playoffs. I also think we kind of owe these guys one because, before break, they actually both beat us, so we haven’t beat them yet this year, so it’d be great to get two wins this weekend.”
