The Middlebury men's ice hockey team tallied a first-period goal off the stick of Dante Palombo, while goalie Andrew Heinze stopped all 26 shots he faced to seal a 1-0 triumph over Tufts on Friday evening.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• The Jumbos looked to get on the scoreboard early with 36 seconds expired in the first period, but Heinze rose and saved a wrister from the right circle by Trace Norwell.
• The hosts went on the power play four minutes later. Tyler Wishart produced a quality chance, sniping a bid from between the faceoff circles that was stopped by the blocker of goalie Gus Bylin.
• Middlebury tallied the contest's lone goal with 9:02 elapsed. Kevin Golden controlled the puck in the neutral zone, sending a stick-to-stick pass to Palombo on the rush. The forward fired a wrist shot that tucked into the upper-left corner of the net over Bylin's shoulder for the 1-0 advantage.
• The Panthers nearly doubled their lead at the 17:08 mark. Racing up the ice three-on-two, a close-range attempt by Jack Silverman was stuffed by Bylin on the post. The puck deflected into the air and fell on Wishart's stick. Bylin denied the rebound attempt with his pad.
• The Jumbos manufactured a quality look one minute into the second frame. Cole Dubicki shuffled a quick cross-ice pass, but Heinze stonewalled Ethan Ullrick's chance.
• Palombo almost tallied his second goal of the contest with 17:00 left when he found himself one-on-one with Bylin. The Tufts netminder caught the chance with his glove.
• The visitors buzzed the zone with 3:41 left in the frame, as Norwell's quick look on the doorstep was smothered by Heinze to keep the one-goal lead.
• Tufts kept the pressure up in the early stages of the third period. With 5:25 gone, Norwell ripped a rising puck from the left dot that Heinze blocked with his shoulder. 
• The Panthers regained the momentum in the middle section of the stanza with an extra skater. The Jumbo defenders blocked a pair of chances by Luk Malkhassian before Bylin smothered the puck on the third attempt at 11:11.
• Circling the zone, Dubucki carried the puck behind the goal and tried a wraparound bid.  Heinze stood his ground and stopped the chance on the post at the 16:04 mark.
• The Jumbos pulled Bylin in favor of an extra skater with 1:23 remaining. Seconds later,  Max Resnick fired a cross-crease bid that Heinze pushed to his right to deny.
• Tufts wasn't able to manufacture any quality chances over the last minute, as Middlebury held on for the final 1-0 tally.

NOTES

• Heinze stopped all 26 shots on target to seal his first shutout of the campaign and the seventh of his career.
• John Burdett, Golden and Palombo tallied their initial points of the season. Palombo also won 12 of the 17 faceoffs he took.
• Silverman and Bobby May collected four blocked shots in the triumph. 
• The programs met for the 49th time with Middlebury owning a 27-15-7 advantage. The victory also snapped a nine-game skid to the Jumbos.

The Panthers close out their home-opening weekend with a 3:00 p.m. contest on Saturday against Connecticut College. Following the game, the program will host a Skate With A Panther event.