Tufts ends road stand on high note

Tufts avenged its season-opening loss to the Wesleyan Cardinals over the weekend with a 3-1 win, but it could not duplicate its performance the following day, losing to No. 5 Trinity by a score of 4-1. The win and loss, respectively, bring the Jumbos' NESCAC record to 3-5-1 and their overall record to  6-9-1.

Despite the losing record, the Jumbos are showing strong signs of improvement. They lost their season opener to the Cardinals (5-2) at home on Nov. 15 before falling to the Bantams (7-2) on Nov. 16, but two months later, the Jumbos avenged their first loss of the season.

 "It was definitely a good experience, but I'm excited to get back home for a little bit," senior tri-captain defenseman Blake Edwards said on playing so many consecutive road games. "When you're on the road, they're sleeping in their own beds, own dorm rooms and stuff like that. We're at a hotel, we have to figure out meals, there's a whole bus ride, so it's a real struggle, but once you get on the ice it really shouldn't [have an] impact [on] you at all."

Sophomore goalie Mason Pulde anchored the defense, parrying an 18-shot fusillade in the first period, ultimately conceding just one goal on a whopping 35 shots against the Cardinals.

At the other end of the ice, junior tri-captain forward Stewart Bell kickstarted the Jumbos' offense with the game's first point off an assist from senior forward Andrew White with 4:06 left in the first period. The goal was Bell's fifth of the season.

Only six minutes into the second period, the Jumbos struck again. This time Edwards capitalized on a tandem assist from White and sophomore defenseman Sean Kavanagh. Subsequently, the Cardinals replaced sophomore goalie Dawson Sprigings with junior Nolan Daley, on whom the Jumbos failed to score for the remainder of the game.

It took slightly over 10 minutes for the Cardinals to respond. Sophomore defenseman Robby Harbison swooped in to seize a rebound off a shot from classmate James Kline in a period that saw only eight shots on goal from the Cardinals.

Down one with 54 seconds remaining, Wesleyan pulled its goalie to allow a sixth skater onto the ice, but it was in vain; with only 0.2 seconds left in the game, Tufts first-year forward Brian Brown scored his team-high ninth goal of the season on an empty net to put the game out of reach.

The Jumbos were unable to exert similar pressure against the Bantams, managing only 17 shots on goal and converting only one throughout the game. Trinity improved to 14-1-1 with the victory, and has yet to lose in the NESCAC, where it boasts a record of 9-0-1.

The Bantams started first-year Alex Morin in goal. Morin has allowed only four goals in as many games, all wins. On the Tufts side, Pulde was overwhelmed in net, bombarded with 39 shots, although he flashed the leather periodically to stanch the onslaught and keep the final scoreline respectable. Pulde gave up at least one goal in each period, two of which came in the second on power plays.

Junior forward Keith Campbell scored Tufts' lone goal, and senior forward George Pantazopoulos was credited with the assist along with Kavanagh.

Although Tufts was outgunned for the vast majority of the game, White felt that the lopsidedness of the stat sheet does not necessarily reflect how the game went.

"[We] came out strong against Trinity," he said. "A few bounces here and there, I mean we stuck with them, they definitely didn't look like the better team. A 4-1 game wasn't really how it felt on the ice. We battled hard and we could definitely play against any team in the league. We're in it every game -- we just need to find a way to squeak out these wins."

The Jumbos are primarily concerned with making the playoffs and potentially improving their playoff seed, and the win against the Cardinals helps that cause immensely. Making the win all the more satisfying is the fact that the Jumbos were not quite at full strength.

"We actually got a little bit of food poisoning [norovirus] that was on the team for a little while so a bunch of us had this stomach bug; I think it was like a 24 [or] 48-hour sickness, so a lot of us weren't practicing for a while," White said.

The virus had a substantial impact on the team, as half of the squad was affected by the sickness.

"Fourteen out of 28 guys that travel got sick," Edwards added. "So we didn't practice Monday or Tuesday, so we only had about two days of practice before we played on Friday, so yeah, that was a tough week."

Like it did against Wesleyan, Tufts has an opportunity to avenge its early-season tie against Middlebury on Nov. 21 at home this Friday, which marks the start of a three-game home stand.