Just a quick update on our game from Friday night down in Medford. It was a wild game and the partially snow covered field and occasional snow squall only added to the chaos.  Tufts ended up making a few more plays than we did at the end of the day but there were a lot of encouraging signs for our group coming out of the game.

The first thing worth mentioning about the game itself is both teams were in a ten man ride the entire game! I don’t recall ever playing or coaching in a game where that has been the case.  Both teams turned the ball over quite a bit in the clearing game, the difference being they were able to turn a few of those into goals while we couldn’t quite get that done.  That will certainly be a focus of ours going forward.

The game was back and forth most of the way with it being tied at 4 after one quarter, and tied up at 6 at the end of the first half.   The third quarter is where the game got away from us after being tied at 9, Tufts rattled off 5 straight goals to close the quarter and to take a 14-9 lead.  One of the things we will certainly be more aware of going forward is our clock management at the end of a quarter. We had the ball with under a minute to play in the 3^rd with the score at 12-9. Sure enough, after a sloppy turnover, Tufts pumped in two quick ones to take their 5 goal lead. 

Our guys battled back in the 4^th and cut it to 15-13 with 10 minutes to play but weren’t able to find the back of the net the rest of the way. 

We have a number of areas where we need to improve going forward but I love the grit and fight in our group this year.  One extremely bright spot on the night was the play of Jake Madnick, our first year face off specialist who went 21 for 31 (68%) at the x with a few of those wins just coming down to him wanting the ball more than his opponent.  We are going to have a devastating 1-2 punch at the face off x when John Jackson returns to action!

Next up are the #6 ranked St. Lawrence Saints (they should be ranked in the top 5 when the updated rankings come out today) tonight at 5pm in Canton, NY. 

St. Lawrence is coming off of a NCAA final four appearance a year ago that included a 2OT win over us at home last March.  They are a veteran team that play with a ton of confidence and will be a very tough test for us this evening.  If you are interested in catching the game, here is the link I was able to come up with.. http://saintsathletics.com/sports/2014/3/20/MLAX_0320143600.aspx?path=mlax