They say all good things must come to an end, and I guess it’s true. This Tuesday, March 1st, the Plymouth State Men’s hockey team lost in the opening round of the MASCAC tournament. A season of new beginnings finally came crashing down in an upset that gave the student body one final chance to cheer for its’ boys of winter. This game epitomized the phrase “on any given night”. Tournament style hockey allows for a team to forget all of its pitfalls of the season in order to put together the last solid sixty minutes of hockey required to move on to the next round. One game does not make the season, but on this night the Westfield Owls conjured up a gritty display of hockey culminating in three goals in six minutes to upset the Panthers 4-1 on home ice.
From the onset of the game, something seemed a little off; maybe it was just nerves or maybe it was just two teams battling extremely hard. Neither team was fluid from the opening face off. The Panthers did not complete many crisp passes through the neutral zone, rather the early strategy seemed to be geared towards dumping the puck into the offensive zone and fighting for control. Their style of play generated an early tally when Tim Vlcek battled in the crease and took a pass from Brian Johnson who then slammed it into the Owls goal. The Panthers goal came just 3:51 into the contest. Proving they came to play, the Owls tied the game three minutes later when Adam Baldassare tapped home a feed from Dennis Zak, notching the game at 1-1. This is where the game stayed for the next two periods. The opportunities were there for Plymouth to break the tie, but Junior goalie Ray Monroe made outstanding saves to keep the game tied for the Owls. In recent games, the Panthers used their power plays to generate goals, but the man advantage was impotent and the Owls were able to fend off both of PSU’s opportunities.
Heading into the third period with the score still tied, it seemed as though the game was headed for a frantic finish. Both teams had their chances to score early in the period but both goalies denied all of the shots. With six minutes remaining in the game Junior Pat Nelson broke the tie and gave the Owls all of the momentum. With this lead, the Owls used a defensive style to stifle the Panthers. The Owls routinely iced the puck which slowed the game down to a snail like pace. The Panthers could not recover and with three and half minutes left Jeff Callahan sealed the victory with a wrist shot from the point. In the end, the shots were even and both power plays were negated; it came down to a few bounces that did not go the Panthers way.
The Panthers will look towards next season as they continue to build the hockey program into something all of Plymouth can be proud of. The future is bright for the hockey program. Now with the sparkling new arena players from all areas of the globe will be enticed to play here.