The hockey team returned to its winning ways on Tuesday night, ending the regular season on a high note with a 5-2 victory over Assumption College in Worcester. After two losses last week, the Jumbos scored three third-period goals and outshot the Greyhounds, 37-33, en route to their 12th win of the year.
“It was good to get a win before the playoffs,” senior captain Drew Carleton said. “But it was pathetic that we couldn’t pull ahead of them sooner.”
Coach Brian Murphy and his team now sit at 12-9-1 overall, and had previously secured sole possession of third place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast Division behind Fitchburg State and Wentworth College. As a result, the Jumbos have earned the right to host their first playoff game since the 1988-89 campaign, when they hosted Fitchburg. Hopefully, the change of locale will also bring a change of fortune for the Brown and Blue, who are 0-3 in their last three post-season appearances.
“It will be helpful to us, especially if we get a good crowd,” Carleton said. “Having your own fans there screaming and yelling always helps out, and there will be a fan bus so hopefully that will attract more people.”
Against Assumption, the visiting Jumbos skated to a 2-2 tie after two periods, before their third period scoring barrage sealed the deal. Senior assistant captain Scott Sullivan put his team on the board, tying the contest at one on an assist from junior assistant captain Dan Mahoney at 15:03. Deep into the second stanza, defenseman Mahoney gave Tufts a brief lead when he cashed in on a powerplay on assists from Sullivan and Carleton for his fifth lamplighter of the season at 17:23. Just a minute later, though, the teams were deadlocked again, as senior All-American forward Mike Cardillo found the back of the net.
“We just weren’t capitalizing at first,” Carleton said. “They weren’t a good team, and it was a small rink, so that was a disadvantage for us because bad teams can clutter everything up and there’s no space. Finally, we relaxed and found the net.”
In the third, it was Carleton who kicked things off with his team-leading 24th tally less than a minute into the action. Freshman forward Mike Carceo and sophomore defensman Chad Pessini assisted on the play, as Carleton continued his torrid scoring streak. He has now scored at least one goal in each of the last seven games, to bring his current average up to 1.1 per contest.
“I still feel like I am not capitalizing on all of my opportunities,” Carleton said. “I’ve had so many 1-1 opportunities and while I’ve been putting the puck away, I still feel like we could be doing more.”
Carleton closed out the scoring as well on Thursday night with his second tally of the game, coming after freshman defenseman Chris Martin recorded his first career goal as a Jumbo. Martin’s strike came at 3:10 on another poweplay, with assists credited to both Sullivan and Pessini. Carceo and Pete Schieffelin set up Carleton’s 25th, with just ten seconds remaining, to put an exclamation point on the evening.
Sophomore netminder Ian Kell made 31 stops to seal his 11th win of the season, the most by a Tufts goalie since Bunk McMahon won 13 in 1994-95. Kell’s final numbers for the regular season also included 454 saves, a 3.48 goals-against average, .880 save percentage, and two shutouts.
Sullivan finished with a goal and two assists against Assumption, giving him the top spot on the team’s scoring list for the regular season (16-21-37). Carleton ended up close behind, with 34 points (24-10), while Carceo also cracked the 30-point barrier in his rookie campaign (10-20). Freshman Robby LaQuaglia and Mahoney rounded out the top five, with point totals of 24 (11-13) and 19 (5-14), respectively.
“It’s a one shot deal, and every game could be our last,” Carleton said. “So we just have to give it everything we’ve got, because there might not be another game. Every one of us knows that and hopefully we’ll come out very focused, buckle down, and give it our all, taking it one game at a time.”
The Jumbos will now switch their focus towards the ECAC Tournament, as they are slated to face Johnson and Wales at Babson on Saturday at 7 p.m. The sixth-seeded Wildcats have already been victimized once by Tufts, when they fell 5-3, Jan. 22 at Harvard. Even so, the Jumbos will have their work cut out for them, since JWU is currently riding a hot streak, having won seven of their last nine match-ups.