MALDEN, MA (February 18, 2023) – The Tufts University hockey team finished the regular-season as the hottest team in NESCAC following today's 2-0 win over Colby College at Valley Forum. The victory is the Jumbos' fourth in a row.
Tufts (10-13-1, 7-10-1) earns the #6 seed in the NESCAC Tournament that starts next Saturday and will play at third-seed Amherst College. Colby (12-10-2, 10-7-1) gets the #5 seed and will play at #4 Hamilton College in the quarterfinal round.
Today also marked Tufts' fifth shutout of the season, and the third recorded by junior goalie
Peyton Durand. The Mules out-shot Tufts 39-26 today, but Durand – NESCAC's current Player of the Week – stopped all 39 shots to lead the Jumbos.
Right away in the game Durand had one of his best saves when the Jumbos were on a power play in the first three minutes. The Mules' Drew Burke had a short-handed break-away and Durand made the save.
Jumbo freshman
John Mulvihill scored for the second straight game to give Tufts a 1-0 lead in the first. During a Colby rush, Jumbo freshman
Liam O'Hare poked the puck away from a Colby forward. Mulvihill collected the puck in his own end and skated down the right side. Once into the Colby zone, covered closely by a Mules defender, Mulvihill sent a shot that caromed off the far left post and in at 12:37 of the period.
With 12 saves by Durand and eight from Colby's Andy Beran in the second period, it remained a 1-0 game headed into the third.
In the middle of the final period, Tufts got a huge insurance goal from sophomore
Harrison Bazianos. After Beran had made a save on a break-away by Jumbo
Tyler Sedlak, Colby's clearing attempt was intercepted by Tufts defenseman
Chris Throndson at the red line. He back-handed a pass up to
Brennan Horn, who moved it along into the Colby zone where Bazianos picked it up. His drive from the right face-off circle at 10:45 put Tufts up 2-0.
Colby would try pulling Beran for an extra skater with 1:42 remaining in regulation, but Durand and the Jumbos would not be denied from posting their fifth shutout victory. In addition to the goalie's play, Tufts blocked 16 shots today after blocking 20 in the Bowdoin game last night (a 3-2 win).
Tufts' four wins in the last two weekends to close the regular-season (they swept Amherst and Hamilton on the road last week) are twice as many as any other NESCAC team has recorded in that time. It's the first four-game winning streak for the Jumbo program since the 2016-17 team opened the season with four wins in a row.
The Jumbos honored their lone senior
Mason Kohn in a pre-game ceremony this afternoon.
--JUMBOS--
