Westfield, Mass. – The defending Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) men’s ice hockey champions from a season ago were on the road this past Tuesday night, traveling to take on conference rival Westfield State University.
The Panthers found themselves down early in the first when Owls freshman Mike Puddifant was able to sneak one over the goalies glove side to put Westfield up 1-0. PSU answered back only a few minutes later when junior Travis Stevens (Montclair, Calif.) was able to take advantage of a power play opportunity to score and make it 1-1 going into the first intermission.
Plymouth State scored again on the PP early in the 2nd period when senior Kyle Greco (Hillside, Ill.) took the nice feed from fellow senior Alex Cotte (West Chester, Pa.) to put PSU up 2-1. Westfield State scored again at 14:03 to make it 2-2.
Although the Panthers looked poised to win the game when they went up 5-3 after back-to-back penalties for Westfield with less than a minute to play, the Owls were to hold them off and send the game into sudden death OT.
An early penalty by PSU proved crucial, as the Owls were able to make the most of their one man advantage and score off the faceoff to win the game.
Westfield State, who only won seven games a season ago, improves to 4-0. Plymouth State now drop to 1-1 in conference play.