Tufts to face Trinity in first round of playoffs

Tufts will face the top-seeded Trinity Bantams in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC Championship this weekend. The Jumbos finished their regular season with an 8-14-2 record, the team’s best since the 2011-12 season, when the team won 12 games. While the Jumbos are facing the intimidating 21-2-1 Bantams, the team remains confident that it can earn its first ever trip to the semifinals.

“Our goal is to win the NESCAC championship,” senior forward William Sellers told the Daily in an email. “The thing I’ve been most impressed with so far is our compete level; everyone is willing to work hard and pays the price to make plays, and that makes it hard for our opponents.”

On paper, Trinity is a near-perfect team. The No. 4 Bantams have won 17 of their last 18 games and have already defeated the Jumbos twice this season. Trinity leads the NESCAC in goals per game (4.38) and goals allowed per game (1.79), as well as having the second and third ranked power play and penalty kill units, respectively.

Individually speaking, Trinity has three of the conference’s top four scorers in sophomore forward Ryan Cole (27 points), junior forward Michael Hawkrigg (25) and senior forward Jackson Brewer (22). In addition, the Bantams’ junior goalie Nathaniel Heilbron allowed a conference-best 1.69 goals per game along with a stellar .939 save percentage in 16 conference games.

On the other side of the puck, the Jumbos offense has relied on the stellar play of first-year phenom Brian Brown, who leads the team in goals and points with 13 and 23, respectively. Despite Tufts' losing record, Brown has maintained a plus/minus of +7. Aside from Brown, the Jumbos offense has been guided by the solid play of senior forward Tyler Voigt, sophomore forward Matt Pugh, junior forward Stewart Bell and sophomore defenseman Sean Kavanagh.

Sophomore goalie Mason Pulde will be minding the net on Saturday in Hartford. At the beginning of the season, the Jumbos’ biggest question mark was at the goalie position. The team had three largely untested players and needed someone to step up. Pulde answered the bell -- he has seen 611 shots in his 18 games but has managed an admirable .910 save percentage.

One of the keys to Saturday’s game will be which team can start scoring early. The Jumbos have typically been slow starters this season with just 15 goals in first periods, but when they are leading after the first, they are 6-0-0. In that same statistic, the Bantams are 14-1-0.

Tufts' ability to get a decent number of shots off against a ferocious Trinity defense will be another factor in who comes out on top. During the season, the Jumbos took just 688 shots, while their opponents fired 822. The Bantams had a split of 941 to 655.

Finally, Tufts is going to need its power play unit to step up. In conference play this season, the Jumbos’ power-play scored on 7 of 59 chances (.119). Trinity’s penalty kill, on the other hand, stopped 86.9 percent of its conference opponent’s opportunities. While the odds are stacked against Tufts, finding a way to score on the power play will give Tufts a chance to gain the upper hand.

Even if Tufts cannot pull off the upset, the team will still have an incredibly bright future. Pulde will be returning next season, as will six of the team’s top seven scorers and three of its top five defensemen. The 2014-15 Jumbos saw a four-win improvement over last season’s team, and it would not shock anyone if next year’s team wins 10-14 games.

While Trinity has appeared unstoppable as of late, in the 2013-2014 NESCAC championship it fell to Bowdoin in the semifinals despite holding the top-seed.

No matter what happens Saturday, Tufts will be ready to face any obstacle as a team.

“Hockey has never been a sport which revolves around an individual,” senior forward Andrew White told the Daily in an email. “It is a team sport so any success or failure is not shared by one individual but rather by the team as a whole.”