Jumbos' season ends in first round of NESCAC tournament with loss to Bantams

On Saturday, the Tufts men's hockey team traveled to Hartford, Conn. to take on Trinity in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. The defending NESCAC champion Bantams defeated the Jumbos in a 2–0 shutout, improving their record to 18–5–2 and putting an end to the visitors’ season. Trinity holds the top seed in the conference tournament and is ranked eighth in the nation by U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO), so Tufts knew it would be facing a formidable opponent.

"We knew what we were getting ourselves into," sophomore defenseman Cory Gottfried said. "Trinity has always been a talented team, but we also know how to play with them and keep up. Obviously, the score doesn’t depict the work we put in, but we played hard and gave it our all."

Although the first two periods were scoreless on Saturday, the Bantams completely dominated throughout the entirety of the game. Tufts, which barely squeaked into the postseason thanks to a victory over Bowdoin on the final weekend of the regular season, was outshot in the opening 20 minutes, 12–5. At the midway point of the period, Trinity first-year forward Blake Carrick hit the pipe with a shot that beat Tufts senior goalie and co-captain Nik Nugnes.

It was a similar story in the second period, as the Bantams recorded more than twice as many shots as the visitors (15–7).While Trinity continued to generate solid scoring chances — including a point-blank opportunity for sophomore forward Barclay Gammill, which Nugnes turned aside — Tufts managed to stay level. Tufts had arguably its best chance of the game late in the period, when first-year forward Edward Hannon was denied in front of goal twice by Trinity senior goalie Alex Morin.

The Jumbos were able to hold off their top-ranked opponents until five minutes into the third period. After Trinity sophomore defenseman Nick Fiorentino's shot was stopped by Nugnes, first-year forward Nicholas Polsinelli backhanded the rebound into the net.Sophomore forward Adam Anderson was also credited with an assist on the goal.

With a 1–0 score and only a few minutes remaining, Tufts removed Nugnes to add another skater in hopes of scoring. However, with 17 seconds left in the game, Trinity senior forward and co-captain Anthony Sabitsky stole the puck from the Tufts defense and scored an insurance goal on an empty net to make the final score 2–0.

The shutout was Morin’s fourth of the year, as the St. Hubert, Québec native only had to make 15 saves.Nugnes recorded an astounding 41 stops for the Jumbos in the last hockey game of his collegiate career.Combined, the teams only had four penalties, and neither scored on their power play opportunities.Tufts finished with 15 shots on goal (compared to Trinity's 43), as well as 22 face-off wins versus Trinity’s 39. Sophomore forward Tyler Scroggins had three shots on net for Tufts and 11 of his team's face-off wins.

"This is clearly not the outcome we wanted to see," sophomore defenseman Cooper Stahl said. "Playing a team like Trinity in the first round of the playoffs is always going to be a challenge. We held them off until the end and did our best to comeback from the 1–0 deficit. Things didn’t fall into place for us this time around, but we’re excited for what’s to come next year with our young team."

Trinity has now defeated Tufts in five consecutive matchups, including twice in the NESCAC quarterfinals. The Bantams will host the NESCAC Final Four and are set to take on seventh-seeded Williams Ephs in the semifinals on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Jumbos close the book on their 2017–18 season with a final record of 5–16–4.