Hartford, Conn. – The Trinity College Bantams scored once in each period and held the Tufts University Jumbos to just 18 shots in a 3-0 shutout on Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Men's Hockey Championship Tournament at the Koeppel Center. Trinity advances to next weekend's semifinals which it will host as the tournament's top seed. The Bantams, ranked No. 7 in the country, improve to 17-3-5 on the year while Tufts ends its season with a 6-16-3 mark.

Tufts nearly came away with the game's first goal early on in the opening period. Anthony Farinacci (Chatham, N.J.) picked off an errant Bantam pass in Trinity's zone which gave him a 1-on-1 look against Bantam junior goalie Tedy Loughborough (Wellesley Hills, Mass.). Farinacci fired a shot on goal but Loughborough came up big, deflecting the puck aside with his blocker to keep the Jumbos off the board.

After 17 minutes of mostly clean hockey, Trinity struck first on a goal by first-year Lucas Michaud (South Portland, Maine). Junior Taggart Corriveau (New Britain, Conn.) skated into the Tufts zone to gather a loose puck before spinning and dropping a pass to senior Michael O'Brien (Cohasset, Mass.) who was positioned near the point. O'Brien fired a shot towards net that Michaud re-directed at the last second, past Jumbo netminder Drew Hotte (Ambler, Pa.), and into the back of the net. Tufts drew the period's lone power play opportunity but Trinity's penalty kill unit did its job as the Bantams took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

The Bantams struck again at the 10:56 mark in the second period to take a 2-0 lead. Junior Nick Fiorentino (Hartsdale, N.Y.) fired a slap shot that was blocked by Craig Uyeno (Toronto, Ontario). The puck hit Uyeno but fell to senior assistant captain Adam Anderson (Lino Lakes, Minn.) who fired a laser of a wrist shot into the back of the net for the goal. The Jumbos almost cut into the deficit towards the end of the period on a shot from Hayden Smith (Trophy Club, Texas), but Smith's shot ricocheted off the top crossbar and away from harm as Trinity held the 2-0 lead into the second break.

Tufts was called for a penalty with just 11 seconds left in the second period which carried over into the third. The Bantams made good on the opportunity when senior captain Ryan Pfeffer (Canton, Mass.) potted his team-leading 11th goal of the season off an assist from Corriveau to make it a 3-0 game.

Trinity's defense put the clamps on for the remainder of the third period, allowing just four total shots in the final 20 minutes. The Bantams finished with 37 shots to Tufts' 18 as Loughborough turned aside every shot he faced to pick up his fourth shutout of the season.