2013-14 Tufts Men's Hockey Season in Review

As teams get eliminated from NESCAC play, we'll review their season. We start this week with the two teams that didn't make the playoffs, #10 Tufts and #9 Hamilton.



10. Tufts University Jumbos        

    

2013-2014 Record:
4-19-1 Overall
2-15-1 NESCAC (10th in NESCAC)

Stats:
Overall  (Conference Rank)                       Conference Games (conf. rank)
Offense: 2.50 G/GM (8th)                              Offense: 2.28 G/GM (10th)

Defense: 3.83 G/GM (10th)                           Defense: 3.89 G/GM (10th)

Power Play: 23/116 -19.8% (4th)                   Power Play: 13/80 -16.2% (6th) 

Penalty Kill: 95/116 - 81.9% (6th)                 Penalty Kill: 75/87 - 86.2% (4th)

Penalty Minutes per game - 15.6 (2nd)          Penalty Minutes per game - 16.2 (2nd) 

Preseason predictions
After a last place NESCAC finish in 2012-13, everyone (USCHO, D3Hockey.com, our preseason poll, WordPress Blog) had  the Jumbos finishing last in the NESCAC standings. The one positive prediction came from D3Hockey.com, who chose Jumbos' sophomore Stewart Bell (F, '16)  for NESCAC breakout player of the year. Bell did finish second on the team in scoring, but on an anemic team that only amounted to twelve points (5-7-12), a full eight points fewer than his debut performance (9-11-20) in 2012-13. 



Season Review
The Jumbos opened the season in the Nutmeg State with a pair of one goal losses to Wesleyan and Trinity. In both contests against the Bantams and Cardinals, the light blue and brown had 3-2 second period leads before succumbing to their vanquishers and losing on late third period goals. To add injury to insult, senior goaltender Brian Phillips (G. '14) went down with a leg injury just five minutes into his first start of the year against Trinity. The Texas native would not play in another game all season.

Tufts would lose three more games, before earning their first win of the season Thanksgiving weekend.  In the opening round of the Rutland Invitational Tournament, the Jumbos downed host Castelton,4-3, before being blanked 2-0 by Manhattanville in the finals. The Jumbos closed out 2013 with their first NESCAC win of the year in a 5-2 upset of Colby in the Great White North before losing to Bowdoin, 8-4, in a wild game that included eight goals being scored in the second period between the two teams.

Tufts and Bowdoin scored a total of eight second
period goals on December 7th 

The Jumbos opened up 2014 splitting a pair of games at the Bostontastic Codfish Bowl, losing to Southern New Hampshire in the first round and beating Suffolk in the consolation game. The Jumbos would then face Suffolk three days later in a regularly scheduled non-conference game at Malden Valley Forum. Tufts would lose that game in their OOC finale and would go on to lose nine straight in conference.

After being eliminated from NESCAC playoff contention heading into the final two weeks of the regular season, Tufts played some of its best hockey of the year. The Jumbos went 1-2-1 down the stretch, including a hard fought road tie with Amherst, who was still in contention for the number one seed at the time, and a season finale win against Bowdoin, which cost the Polar Bears a home playoff game.

Greg Jenkins, who had played only three games in his first three years at Tufts, emerged as the starting goaltender in the second half of the year, giving freshman Ryan Kellenberger a break from the barrage of shots he faced. Jenkins would bookend his senior year with wins, defeating Suffolk in his season debut and upsetting Bowdoin with a 42 save performance in the season finale.

High Point
It may seem counter-intuitive to choose the last game of the season when the Jumbos had been eliminated from playoff contention two weeks prior. But the season finale was the first home win of the season and it came on Senior Day. It also had a significant impact on conference play as the Bowdoin loss cost the Polar Bears a home playoff game.

Low Point
When you go 2-15-1 in conference, there are a lot of low points. The team's low point really wasn't a low point, but rather a low streak when they lost ten games in a row, including nine in conference. The streak knocked them out of playoff contention and went a long way in Tufts sixth last place finish in thirteen years of playing in the conference.

MVP
Kyle Gallegos (F, '14) Not as successful as any of his previous three years of play - including a 2011-12 All-NESCAC Second Team selection - but the senior from Colorado still lead the team in goals (9), power play goals (3) and points (9-4-13). Six Jumbos got to double digit in points, but no one on the team cracked the ten goal goal mark.