PSU Men’s Ice Hockey Defeats Worcester State in Wild Ride, 8-5

Waterville Valley, NH – On Saturday, Feb 19 at the Waterville Valley Ice Arena, the Plymouth State University Men’s Ice Hockey team defeated Worcester State College, 8-5. Entering this ECAC Northeast Conference matchup. PSU’s record stood at 10-9-2, while Worcester State stood at 3-18-1. The first period of play eventually became a one-sided scoring-fest, starting with a PSU Deni Bojadzic (freshman) goal assisted by senior Mike Bodnar at 3:19 into the game. Derek Avakian (sophomore) followed the act at 8:16 with an unassisted goal to give PSU a 2-0 lead. Soon enough the lead was extended to 3-0 on a Max Wernert (senior) powerplay goal, who was helped by teammates Bodjadzic and Dennis Kane (junior) on the play. Then just around a minute later PSU found themselves up 4-0 after Avakian scored his second goal of the game, who was aided by Andy Herlihy (sophomore) and Ryan Moreau (freshman). The last and final goal of the first period was put away by Kane, with help from Bojadzicc and Matt Withers (junior), bringing the first period tally to a 5-0 PSU advantage. Time after time fans will see that in any sport however, that the game really is not over until the clock reads 0:00. Despite the sizeable PSU lead, Worcester State did not lie down. Worcester opened the second period to score an immediate goal just 11 seconds in thank to Matt Davis. PSU however, responded just 22 seconds later with an unassisted Bodnar goal to create a 6-1 Panther lead. It wasn’t until 14:47 that WSC freshman Dan McLaughlin found the back of the net, adjusting the score to 6-2. PSU answered back a minute later with a powerplay goal coming from Kyle Allen (sophomore), who was assisted by Paul Feeney and Matt Withers. With a PSU 7-2 lead, the Panthers soon found themselves with a momentum shift in favor of Worcester. Worcester scored late in the second period, and goal tender Karl Helgesson (freshman) was penalized with a ten minute misconduct to be served at the start of the final period. With a 7-3 Panther lead entering the third and final frame, an uneasy feeling soon overcame PSU as two more unanswered goals were allowed to cut the lead down to 7-5. However, PSU was able to hold off Worcester State after an unassisted Paul Feeney (junior) goal put the final nail in the coffin at 15:14, leaving the score board reading 8-5 PSU at the end of regulation. The victory for the Panthers helped improve their record to 11-9-2 on the regular season and 8-5-1 in conference play, while WSC dropped their ninth straight loss to end their regular season at 3-19-1 overall and 2-12-1 in conference play. PSU will play their first game of the ECAC Northeast Conference tournament on Saturday, Feb 26 at 7:30 pm at the Waterville Valley Ice Arena.