On Saturday night, the hockey team slid into second place in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) Northeast Division after a 3-3, overtime stalemate against UMass-Dartmouth at Boston College. The Jumbos, now trailing first- ranked Fitchburg State by a mere point, look to garner wins this week against Plymouth State and Wentworth College.

The squad was forced to play catch-up against the Corsairs after falling behind 2-0 within the first nine minutes of play. With less than a minute to go in the first, junior forward Natan Obed put the Jumbos on the board when he finished a feed from senior captain Drew Carleton on a powerplay.

“They really outplayed us in the first period,” Carleton said. “We just were playing horrible. It was one of worst periods we’ve had all year. Heading into second, we knew we could come back, after playing so badly in the first period, and only being behind 2-1.”

At 3:22 in the second, Tufts tied the game when sophomore Jordan Karp gloved the puck and dropped it for a wrist shot past UMass goalie Louis Weimann. The tie was short-lived, though, as the visitors responded a few minutes later to pull ahead 3-2 before the third.

The frustrating third stanza was marked by a controversial ruling on what appeared to be the tying goal at 18:15 by senior assistant captain Scott Sullivan. Sullivan, who had scored points in each of the previous 14 games, capitalized on a breakaway, only to have it waved off by officials.

“There is no way that it wasn’t a goal,” Carleton said. “Their goalie kept dislodging the net all night. The refs said the goal was knocked off before Scott’s goal, but it was really only knocked off after the puck was in the net.”

“They weren’t calling penalties on their goalie,” junior assistant captain Dan Mahoney said. “The refs were just blowing calls left and right.”

But the Jumbos refused to lie down and die, continuing to fight for the remainder of the third. With 1:39 remaining, with the help of Mahoney and freshman Mike Carceo, Carleton picked up a rebound in front of the net and beat Weimann for his eighteenth tally of the season, sending the game into overtime play.

“The puck was just laying there, and I smacked it in,” Carleton said.

“That goal was typical Drew,” Karp said. “He’s our big gun and he was just doing his job.”

In the extra period, both teams put four shots on net, only to be shut down by the skills of Weimann and sophomore Jumbo goalie Ian Kell. At the game’s end, neither team could pull off a tally, and the game ended in deadlock, 3-3.

“We were lucky to get out of there with a tie, considering the way we opened up the game,” Carleton said. “It was frustrating, a close game with so much riding on it, but we got some necessary points.”

With 26 shots against him, Kell stood strong and held up the fort when push came to shove. “[Kell] is going to be a key to our success and part of how far we go in post season action will depend on him,” Hayes said.

“Ian played really well this weekend,” junior forward Scott Hayes said. “He had some great saves, and a huge save at the end of the third period that sent us into overtime.”

Although extremely tired, the Jumbos finished their week-long, five-game stretch by punishing Framingham State Thursday evening, and then tying Saturday night’s point grabber. In Thursday’s 3-0 shutout, the Jumbos ended a three-game losing streak thanks to two goals by Carleton, while freshman phenom Rob LaQuaglia posted his eleventh goal of the season.

“It was a really tough week for us, five games is a lot to handle,” Karp said. “We were really tired.”

Tomorrow night the Jumbos face seventh-ranked Plymouth State College on the road. At 7 p.m. Thursday evening, the squad will battle with Wentworth College, who shares the second seed in the division with the Jumbos.

“We definitely have to win the next two games, especially Wentworth,” Carleton said. “It’s going to be really tough. We’ll be in real good shape if we can come out with wins. We should be able to beat Plymouth if we play how we’re capable of playing.”