Date: Thursday, February 22, 2001

HOCKEY FINISHES FIRST IN NORTHEAST; HOSTS SALVE ON SUNDAY

MEDFORD - The Tufts University hockey team finished its regular season with a 4-3 victory on Saturday (Feb. 17) versus New Hampshire College behind 39 saves from freshman goalie Ben Crapser (Paxton, MA). After Johnson & Wales tied UMass-Dartmouth that night, 3-3, the Jumbos clinched first place in the ECAC Northeast Division. Head Coach Brian Murphy's team finished 15-1-1 in league play and is 17-5-1 overall.

As the top seed in the conference tournament, Tufts will host eighth seed Salve Regina University (10-13, 7-9) in the first round on Sunday (Feb. 25) at 3:15 at MIT. The rink-less Jumbos, who have played and/or practiced at most every rink in Greater Boston, will also host a semi-final (Feb. 28) and the championship game (Mar. 3) if they advance. The Northeast champion automatically qualifies for the NCAA Tournament.

This is Tufts' last season in the Northeast. Next year they will play in the NESCAC/ECAC East League. The competition will be tougher, so the Jumbos are going for it all this season.

"Our goal all season was to be the #1 seed and give ourselves the best chance once the playoffs came around," Murphy said. "We found ways to win when we did not play as well as we are capable of. That's the sign of a good team."

Tufts has combined a potent offensive attack with a steady defense led by senior tri-captain Dan Mahoney (Tewksbury, MA) and backed by Crapser. The team is ranked second in the NCAA's Division III with 5.48 goals per game and with a 32.8 powerplay percentage (44/134). The Jumbos spent a few weeks in US College Hockey Online's national poll earlier in the season.

Hockey at Tufts has come a long way from just six years ago when Murphy captained the team in 1994-95. At that time, the university had targeted the sport to be dropped. Without a home rink, it was costing too much to support the team. The campus rallied around the Jumbos, who went on a school-record tying 11-game winning streak. They beat NESCAC teams Connecticut College, Trinity, Wesleyan and Amherst.

That team showed Tufts what it meant to have a hockey team. When all was nearly lost, they caught the campus' attention with their winning ways. Talks about cutting the program ceased and an endowment account was set up to help funding. The 1994-95 Jumbos saved the program.

"If we had lost, it would have been a lot easier for them to ignore us," said Murphy, who is from neighboring Arlington. "We were angry about it. But we decided the only thing we could do is play to win, so that was our focus."

After two below-average years that were the result of the program's uncertain status, the university made a major commitment to the team when it hired Murphy as its first full-time hockey coach. He had been the team's graduate assistant during the rebuilding years. He is now one of just four full-timers in the ECAC Northeast. With Tufts Hockey here to stay, Murphy has been able to bring in the guys who now lead this year's first-place squad.

The team remains without a rink. They have played games this season at Harvard, at Boston College, at the Valley Forum in Lawrence and at MIT. They practice wherever and whenever they can get ice time. Often they only get 50 minutes. Tufts will play its games next year at a new facility being built in neighboring Malden. So this is the final season of their nomadic existence.

"We haven't let things distract us," Murphy said. "We just go out and play."

Along with skating in rinks across the area, Tufts can also lay claim to being Greater Boston's team based on the roster make-up. Seventeen Jumbos hail from Massachusetts, including many who played in the Greater Boston League. Murphy likes local players, and they have been very good to him. Junior Jason Boudrow (Somerville, MA) is the leading scorer in the country with 30 goals and 64 points. Sophomore Mike Carceo (Belmont, MA) is shortly down the list with 43 points (21 goals). Mahoney is the ECAC Northeast's scoring leader among defensemen with 1.13 points per game.

Sophomore Rob LaQuaglia (Medford, MA), freshman Pat Byrne (Burlington, MA) and senior tri-captain Scott Hayes (Medfield, MA) join out-of-stater Natan Obed (Goose Bay, NFLD) as other leaders of the team.Crapser has won 15 games with a 3.24 goals against average and 89.0 save percentage.

"We actively recruit local kids," Murphy said. "There are a lot of good players in this area that we think can be our nucleus now and in the future."

With 17 wins, Tufts is one shy of tying the team record (18 in 1987-88). They hope to accomplish a lot more than that.

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