Box Score Recap courtesy of Castleton University
RUTLAND, Vt. – The Tufts men's hockey team scored two first-period goals and never looked back, cruising to a 4-1 victory over Brockport in the opening round of the Rutland Herald Invitational hosted at Spartan Arena.
Tufts moves to 4-0-0 with the win, and will face off with the winner of the Friday night contest between Castleton and Western New England in Saturday's championship game at 7 p.m. Brockport, which is now 2-4-1, will take on the loser of that contest on Saturday at 3:45 p.m.
Four different players scored goals for the Jumbos, including three players with their first goals of the 2016-17 season. Mason Pulde went the distance, conceding just one goal with 24 saves in the contest.
Brockport's Jake Taylor scored the lone goal for the Golden Eagles late in the contest, burying a short-handed goal to break up Pulde's shutout. Jake Moore shouldered the loss, allowing all four goals-against in 40 minutes of action. Matt Schneider played the third period, making nine saves while allowing no goals for Brockport.
Mike Leary opened the scoring midway through the first period, netting his first goal of the year just less than seven minutes into the contest on an assist from Patrick Lackey. Cooper Stahl doubled the lead to 2-0 with just 34 seconds to play in the first, when Brian Brown and Sean Kavanagh worked the puck out to Stahl at the right point. Stahl the ripped a slap shot into the top left corner of the net, scoring the only power-play goal in the contest.
Tufts again controlled the second period, scoring twice more in the middle stanza. Machlan Sawden tallied his first career goal at 3:52 of the second period, finishing a rebound off a shot by Nick Balboa to push the lead to 3-0 in favor of the Jumbos. Nick Flanagan made it a 4-0 game with just 1:10 to play in the second period, sneaking a shot between the legs of Brockport goalie Jake Moore after Ross DeLabreure won the face-off back to him.
Brockport's Brian Hurlimann recorded a tripping call at 10:58 in the 3rd period to start a Tufts power play. The Jumbos had a 5-3 scoring opportunity from a slashing penalty on Rob Hall at 12:29. In a span of 20 seconds, Tufts' Anthony Farinacci was penalized for hooking that resulted in a 5-4 Tufts advantage at 12:41 that either team could not capitalize on.
The third period was scoreless most of the way, but late in the period with Tufts on the power play, Taylor forced a turnover deep in his offensive zone. The senior then beat Pulde under his pads to get his squad on the board, 4-1, with just 2:01 left in the contest.
Tufts held a narrow, 26-25 edge in shots, and a 33-31 edge in face-offs. The Jumbos converted one of their five power plays, while Brockport went 0-for-4 with a man advantage.
Three Tufts freshman took a good amount of face-offs which went to Tyler Scroggins (10-18), DeLabreure (7-11) and Blake McIntyre (7-11).
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