Despite a hot start to the season, Tufts is mired in a four-game losing streak after suffering another pair of tough losses this weekend. Following two losses and major injuries to four key players from the previous weekend, Tufts failed to recover as the team lost 5-4 to NESCAC leader Williams on Friday in the last three minutes of regulation before falling to last-place Middlebury 1-0 on Saturday.
Trying to bounce back after their Friday loss, Tufts showed some minor improvements in its game against Middlebury, although the result ended up being a 1-0 loss and the team’s second shutout of the season. Both teams went scoreless in the first period as senior goaltender Nik Nugnes was solid in goal with 15 saves, but the Panthers scored their lone goal at 4:30 in the second after the puck was slotted across the defensive zone and junior Mark McLellan put the puck in the net from the right side.
Although Tufts ended the game scoreless, the team had an abundance of scoring opportunities throughout the second and third period and outshot Middlebury 41-30, outshooting the visitors 21-4 in the third period alone. The Jumbos also won the face-off battle 44-25, while Nugnes had 29 saves, facing less pressure in the second and third periods as the Jumbo offense turned up the pressure.
“Our coaches have been outstandingly calm through this rough period, and I think that has been what has helped our team mentality: everyone understands that we still did this awesome thing at the beginning of the year,” sophomore Nick Balboa said. “[T]hat team from the beginning of the season is still there, it’s the same guys and the same mentality. We just have to work hard and start getting those good bounces again.”
Tufts now stands at 7-8-3 overall record and 5-6-1 in NESCAC play -- in seventh place in the conference -- with six NESCAC games left in the regular season to improve their seed before postseason play.
But the team has been hampered considerably in the latter part of the season by a series of devastating injuries, with multiple players out with concussions and senior goaltender Mason Pulde out indefinitely with an ACL tear. The Jumbos hope to regain some of these players in the upcoming weeks and turn their mid-season slump around to finish the regular season on a high note.
Junior forward Brian Brown said that recovering from last week's injuries is paramount to the team's success.
“Getting a little healthier and just sticking to the game plan will definitely help us for the upcoming games," Brown said. "We showed that in the beginning of the year we are a team with highs and lows, and this is a big low for us right now."
The Jumbos started the weekend with high energy and high intensity and never trailed against a tough Williams Ephs squad until the end of the game. Though the Ephs have been one of the NESCAC's top programs in recent years and earned the No. 1 seed heading into the NESCAC tournament last year, the Jumbos have had success against them, upsetting the Ephs 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs last year and tying them 3-3 in the teams' first match-up this season back in December 2016. But Williams entered this contest having won four of its last six games, while Tufts entered having won just one contest in its previous seven.
At 18:34 into the first period, senior Conal Lynch scored the first goal of the game off of a wrist shot from the right circle, and a little over a minute later Brown scored again to put Tufts up 2-0 early against the conference's top team.
Williams was quick to retaliate, and at 3:59 into the second, junior Colby Cretella scored after taking advantage of a Tufts turnover. Less than a minute later, Williams senior Tyler Young scored an equalizer, tying the game 2-2.
Tufts took the lead once again at 8:15 on a power play after first-year Jordan Haney hit a shot from the left point that was deflected by first-year Machlan Sawden into the net. Once again, Williams responded quickly with a power-play goal shot from the left circle by senior Alex Hagerty at 15:44. The second period ended tied, 3-3.
Balboa then retook the lead for the Jumbos midway through the third, beating a defender wide and chipping a shot over the Eph goaltender at 12:28 to put the team up 4-3. Tufts maintained this lead until 17:01 when sophomore Roberto Cellini of Williams responded with a goal to tie it up. Just 16 seconds later, senior Taylor Carmola scored the game-winner, and the Ephs held on for the victory.
“[Letting up two goals in the last two minutes] was definitely caused by a mental breakdown as a team, and this was something we probably could have avoided if we had made harder plays, but you really can’t control for tough bounces sometimes,” Balboa said.
Nugnes had 27 saves while his Williams counterpart, junior Stephen Morissey, finished with 35. Tufts outshot Williams 39-32 and also won the face-off battle 35-30.
Tufts takes on Conn. College in a two-game series this weekend, with a game at home on Friday followed by a game in Connecticut on Saturday.
Men's hockey, plagued by injuries, stuck in mid-season slump
