The hockey team will attempt to put a halt to its two game downward slide tonight when it travels to Assumption College for a 7:15 p.m. face off. Upon earning a home playoff berth, the squad lost two games on the road last week. Saturday night, in a non-league match, the Brown and Blue took to the ice somewhat flat and could not capitalize on a number of power plays, and ended up falling to New Hampshire College, 6-3. The team, now 11-9-1 overall, now ranks third heading into ECAC postseason action.
“We didn’t play our best game,” senior captain Drew Carleton said. “I don’t think we played horrible though. We might have been looking ahead to the playoffs and not focused on that game. I think it was sort of a tune-up game.”
The squads opened up play with a scoreless first period, while the Jumbos were faced with the rough style of play that NHC adheres to.
“They’re a really loudmouthed, really dirty team,” Carleton said. “They always have been and we took some really big hits.”
Tufts lit up the scoreboard early in the second, when Carleton scored his 21st goal of the season off a Justin Picone assist. Then NHC’s Matt Nee slid one past junior Alex Scerbo at 13:02 of the middle frame to lead the squads into the third period deadlocked at 1-1.
The Jumbos exploded in the third when leading point scorer Scott Sullivan knocked on in 20 seconds into the period, with the help of freshman Mike Carceo, to push the Jumbos to a 2-1 lead. The Penmen responded almost as quickly, as Chuck Croteau slapped one past junior goaltender Alex Scerbo just 18 seconds later. Scott Proulx gave his team the lead for good at 1:51 of the period, then he, Croteau, and Nee each added their second goals of the game to lead the assault over Tufts. Carleton would not let his team die, though, as he fired a last minute shot for his second of the game to end the scoring at 6-3.
Scerbo held up for 24 saves in net, while the Jumbos fired 28 shots on the Penmen.
“They’re a pretty good team,” junior defenseman Scott Hayes said. “We were pretty evenly matched, but score didn’t really reflect the ability of the two teams.”
The Jumbos partially attributed their loss to weak officiating of the match. The Penmen received three questionable calls in their favor, and taking those three goals away would have made the game 3-3
“The refs were a fairly big factor in the outcome,” Carleton said. “There were a couple of calls they made that affected our score pretty dramatically. We’re not just blaming the refs though; the other team did score six goals.”
Hayes echoed Carleton’s sentiments.
“The refs blew a few calls then later admitted to making bad calls,” Hayes said. “They called off a goal at one point, later to give it back to NHC, which was wrong, and they also scored with a man offsides.”
The team went 0-5 on power plays on the evening and, while NHC only fared 1-6, the Jumbos could not capitalize on several key scoring opportunities. For a team that can convert on 21% of its power plays, the extra goal would have been a blessing.
“We certainly can’t have that in the playoffs,” Carleton said. “At least one of them was when it was 5-3. If we can’t score when it’s five men on three, we need help.”
This loss comes at the heels of a heartbreaking 3-4 loss to second-ranked Wentworth College. This week, the squad heads into its final stretch of regular season action, and prepares for its first home playoff match since 1989.
“We’ve got to bounce back,” Hayes said. “We know where we stand; we just have to go out and fine tune a few things. We need to get the intensity back, and play with a purpose in mind, focusing towards playoffs. We want to go into playoffs at full steam, playing our best hockey.”
Carleton agrees that his team is capable of putting last week in the past.
“This week, hopefully we can capitalize on some power plays, and execute in the playoffs,” Carleton said. “I don’t think it will effect us negatively, maybe just highlight some things we need to work on.”