On Sunday, the men’s hockey team secured its third win of the season and first since January 16th, with a 3-2 home victory over Tufts. Despite a disappointing 3-15-1 overall record, the squad finds itself with a shot at the NESCAC playoffs with two weeks remaining. The team will have to beat Colby over the weekend to have a shot at a playoff berth.
“At this point in the season, there are no excuses and no second chances,” said Dallas Bossort ’09, the assistant captain of the team.
Sunday’s win came after a loss on Saturday night to NESCAC rival Connecticut College. The Cardinals found themselves up 2-1 with only a period remaining. Geoff Mucha ’12 scored the first goal after a long pass up the ice that found him at the blue line ready to skate through uncontested. Mucha skillfully moved the puck across the net and easily shelved it in the upper right corner. Dave Layne ’10 scored the second goal—his team-leading fifth goal of the season.
“Mucha had a very good finish early for us, and Layne has just been a consistent goal scorer for us the past two years and we hope he can keep it up in these next two weekends,” said captain J.J. Evans ’09.
Despite the early lead, the Camels came back in the third period with two goals of their own to take the lead 3-2. Wesleyan pulled goalie Mike Palladino ’09 at the end of the game for the man advantage, only to give up two empty netters which quickly concluded the game 5-2 in favor of the Camels.
With no time to dwell on the loss, the Cardinals found themselves back on the ice just 18 hours later, this time squaring off against the Jumbos of Tufts University. The Cardinals proved they were able to get over the previous night’s loss by taking a quick 1-0 lead over the Jumbos. Henry Coxe ’11 stylishly avoided a defender and slid the puck across to Layne, who found Sam Robinson ’10 streaking down into the slot for the open wrister.
“It was one of our prettiest goals of the year,” said Layne. “I’m just glad Robinson put it in the back of the net.”
Robinson also assisted Woody Redpath ’10 on a short-handed goal in a later play when Redpath out-hustled a much larger Tufts defenseman and stuck a low shot short side on the Jumbo goalie.
Wesleyan hurt itself with six penalties, which allowed Tufts to get two goals from its power-play unit. With the score tied 2-2 entering the third period, the game closely resembled the previous night’s loss to Conn. College. This time, however, the Cardinals did not let the game slip away. Dan Sullivan ’11 was the hero for Wesleyan as he tucked a slap shot early in third period to give the home team the 3-2 lead.
The two teams battled it out throughout the third period. With 27 seconds left, Bossort received his team-leading 12th penalty after getting into a scuffle with a Tufts player. Both Bossort and the Jumbo headed to the box, which allowed Tufts to pull its goalie for the five-on-four advantage in the waning moments of the game. Fortunately for Bossort and the Cards, Palladino kept up his steady play in the net with 13 saves in the third period. Despite Bossort’s strong performance which helped Wes hold onto the 3-2 lead as time expired, he remained casual about his end-of-game penalty.
“That’s called playing tough,” he said.
Wesleyan will need to find its inner toughness in order to finish strong and slide into the playoffs. The next action for Wesleyan is at Bowdoin on Friday night, followed by a must-win at Colby the next day. The team then returns to Middletown for games the following Friday and Saturday against Castleton State College and Skidmore College, respectively.
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