CLINTON, NY (February 11, 2023) – Sophomore
Harrison Bazianos scored in the third period to lift the visiting Tufts University men's hockey team to a 2-1 victory at Hamilton College in NESCAC action Saturday afternoon.
The victory gives the Jumbos (8-13-1, 5-10-1 NESCAC) a two-game sweep in conference play on the road this weekend. Tufts won 2-0 at Amherst College on Friday night. Hamilton, undefeated in five straight games entering today, dropped to 12-9-1 overall and 10-5-1 in the league.
Today's win gives Tufts 16.5 points in NESCAC play, currently seventh in the league. Middlebury (15 points) and Williams (13.5) play tonight. The Jumbos are looking to earn one of the eight berths into the upcoming conference tournament.
With the game tied at 1-1 heading into the third period, Tufts first had to kill three power-plays by Hamilton early in the frame. Junior goalie
Peyton Durand, who would finish with 36 saves in a second-straight stand-out effort, made four stops during the trio of Continental man-advantages to keep the game at 1-1.
Tufts would get the game-winning goal when Bazianos chased down the puck behind the Continental goal and chipped it over to
Tyler Sedlak on the left side. He sent it back to defenseman
Jack Hughes who dumped it back behind the net. There
Brennan Horn won a puck battle, and back-handed a pass to Bazianos who drove it in at 13:15 for a 2-1 Jumbo lead.
The hosts would pull goalie Charlie Archer with 2:39 remaining in the third period and had a solid minute of good pressure. Durand made two more saves during this time, while
Liam O'Hare and
Clark Bolin blocked shots for the Jumbos. However, Tufts was largley able to keep Hamilton at bay during the last 90 seconds and time expired.
The Jumbos had taken a lead during four-on-four action in the first period. Carrying the puck out of his own end,
Cole Dubicki passed to Bazianos just inside the Hamilton blue line. Bazianos put a shot on goal that Archer bobbled. Dubicki got a stick on the rebound and the puck ricocheted off Archer and then off Dubicki into the net at 11:49 of the opening frame.
Durand made 11 saves in the first period, at the time giving him 52 saves through four periods of scoreless play over the weekend including Friday's 41-save shutout at Amherst.
However, Hamilton would break through in the second stanza after Max Bulawka won a face-off in the Tufts end. Alex Danis continued the puck back to Jeremy Smith at the left point. Smith made a nice move to avoid a Jumbo defender and get into the circle. From there he sent a pass to the slot where Bulawka scored at 11:05 of the second period making it 1-1.
Tufts held Hamilton to 0 for 6 on power-play chances today. Shots finished at 37-25 in favor of the Continentals, but Durand and the Jumbo defense finished off an outstanding weekend with their play. Durand allowed just one goal on 78 shots (.987 save percentage) in the two games.
Archer finished with 23 stops for Hamilton.
The Jumbos close out the regular-season at home next weekend with games against Bowdoin and Colby.
--JUMBOS--
