COLLEGE HOCKEY
FINAL SCORE
Tufts 3, Middlebury 3 OT
At Malden, MA
Friday, November 20, 2009
Game
Box Score
MALDEN -- With Tufts at a six-on-four advantage, freshman
Trevor John (Grosse Pointe, MI) scored with 57
seconds left in the third period to help the Jumbo hockey team earn
a 3-3 tie against Middlebury College in a dramatic NESCAC
season-opener for both teams on Friday night at Valley Forum
II.
After a scoreless first period, the Jumbos scored twice in the
second period and led 2-0 heading into the third. Middlebury
stormed back to take a 3-2 lead with a trio of goals 4:23 apart.
Tufts, already on a power-play, pulled goaltender Scott
Barchard (Reading, MA) with 1:10 remaining in the third.
With heavy pressure on the doorstep of the Middlebury net, John
scored his first collegiate goal with assists from juniors
Tom Derosa (Charlestown, MA) and Andy Davis (Woburn, MA). Neither team scored in the overtime
period.
Barchard, who finished with 43 saves for the Jumbos, stopped all
14 Middlebury shots in the first period. The Panthers were 0 for 3
on the power play in the first 20 minutes. After failing to get a
challenging shot on net in the first, Tufts buzzed Middlebury
sophomore goalie John Yanchek (Hillsborough, NJ) with 20 shots in
the middle stanza. The hosts took a 1-0 lead on Derosa's goal from
Mike Vitale (Brookfield, IL) and junior
Zach Diaco (Rumson, NJ) at 4:41. The Jumbos then
scored shorthanded, with Diaco lighting the lamp from Vitale and
John at 12:27 for a 2-0 margin. Barchard had stopped all 27
Middlebury shots through two periods.
The visiting Panthers, ranked seventh in the U.S. College Hockey
Online poll, quickly erased the deficit in the third. Freshman
Mathieu Dubuc (Blainville, QUE) jammed the puck past Barchard with
assists to sophomore Jak Knelman (Edina, MN) and junior Brian
Curran (Wilmette, IL) at 6:08. Ninety-nine seconds later, the
Panthers tied it on a power-play goal by junior Ken Suchoski (Bear
Creak Township, PA) from sophomores Charles Nerback (Martinsville,
NJ) and Charlie Strauss (Eagle River, WI). Less than three minutes
after that at 10:31, the Panthers had a 3-2 lead when Knelman
blasted a shot from a few feet inside the blue line that eluded a
screened Barchard.
The Jumbos were able to earn their first point against
Middlebury since Tufts reinstated varsity hockey in 1986 with
John's late goal. Middlebury had won 13 straight games in the
series since 1986-87, when the Tufts program returned after a
26-year hiatus.
John, Derosa and Diaco all had a goal and an assist for the
Jumbos (0-0-1). Vitale finished with two helpers. Knelman was the
lone multiple-point scorer for Middlebury (0-0-1) with a goal and
an assist. Yanchek finished with 33 saves.
Middlebury out-shot Tufts 46-36, while the Panthers were 1 for 8
on power-plays and Tufts was 1 for 6. Twenty-six penalties were
whistled in the contest.
#
