Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tufts loses two NESCAC road games

2014-11-16-Tufts-Mens-Ice-Hockey-vs.-Trinity0006-1
Tufts junior defender, Dominic Granato passes the puck to first-year defender, Zack MacQueen during the men's ice hockey team's 7-2 defeat against Trinity at the Malden Forum Ice Rink on Nov. 16th, 2014.

Tufts began its weekend with a tough 6-3 loss to now 5-5-4 Hamilton, followed by a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to NESCAC heavyweight No. 12 Amherst (10-3-2) on Saturday.

Tufts sophomore goalie Mason Pulde started both games in net this weekend, and while the team struggled defensively against Hamilton, Pulde played one of his best games of the season in the near-upset of Amherst.

The Jumbos were playing from behind for the majority of the first period after the Lord Jeffs’ first year forward David White beat Pulde for his seventh goal of the season.

Tufts’ offense fired 11 shots on net in the first period but were unable to beat senior goalie Danny Vitale and his defense.

Vitale and the Lord Jeffs squad continued to hold off the Jumbos attack until the tenth minute of the second period when senior defenseman Blake Edwards found twine for the second time this season.

Amherst first-year forward Thomas Lindstrom broke the tie just two minutes later off of junior forward Brendan Burke’s ninth assist of the season. However, Tufts junior defenseman Brian Oullette immediately answered back to even up the score.

The game remained tied at two for the remainder of the second period and for the first 19 minutes of the third. Pulde finished the game with an impressive 37 saves, but was unable to stop White from firing the puck into the back of the net with just 26 seconds left on the clock.

Despite this brutal loss, senior forward William Sellers feels they can compete with the best in the NESCAC.

“Without a doubt we can beat anyone in this league. We knocked off the defending NESCAC champs before the break (Bowdoin), as well as played a very close game with No. 6-ranked Oswego over break, although it ended in a loss,” Sellers told the Daily in an email. “If our team plays the game to the best of our abilities and keeps improving, I have no doubt that we will be able to make a push towards the top of the NESCAC.”

On Friday night, the Jumbos traveled to upstate New York to take on the Continentals. Hamilton junior forward Kenny Matheson opened up the game’s scoring with his sixth goal of the season and added his seventh early in the third period.

Pulde and the Tufts defense had an effective first period, but Hamilton senior goalie Zach Arnold was borderline unstoppable for the first forty minutes of the game.

Arnold entered the game with a 0-2-2 record, but his 16 saves in the first period and 12 more in the second made him appear to be one of the toughest goalies the Jumbos have faced all season.

Hamilton took a 2-0 lead early in the second off the stick of junior forward Scott Vazquez, but first-year forward Brian Brown, Tufts’ leader in goals scored with eight, brought the deficit to one just over halfway through the period. Brown has been revelation for the Jumbos this year, as his ability to both create for others and finish opportunities has given the offense another gear.

Tufts had a few opportunities to tie the game in the third, but Matheson added another goal in the period to put the game out of reach. The Jumbos offense played reasonably well with 38 shots on net and three goals, but the Continentals’ dynamic offense, led by Matheson, Vazquez and senior forward Patrick Curtis — who had a game-high four assists — were too much for Pulde and the Jumbos’ defense to handle.

“I believe our team has excelled at being resilient and binding together to form a cohesive unit,” senior forward Andrew White told the Daily in an email. “All the guys on the team have really come together and although we have not achieved the success we are looking for in terms of wins and losses so far I know that the respect we all have for one another will pay dividends as we get later in the season.” Tufts has a record of 1-4 during its current stretch of seven consecutive road games, but the team will look to finish strong as it travels to 2-12-0 Wesleyan and 12-1-1 Trinity this weekend.

“I know that we can be competitive against anyone in the NESCAC. We have beaten the defending NESCAC champs, and we narrowly lost to the current second place team in Amherst College this past weekend,” White said. “I know that our record to date is not stellar, but I guarantee that when we make the playoffs this season no team will want to play Tufts.”