In front of a sell-out crowd at Hanaway Arena, the Plymouth State Men’s Hockey team was able to defeat the Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth 4-1. The win brought the Panthers’ overall record to 2-2-1, and 2-0-1 and Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) play upon winning last Saturday (Nov. 15) night.
Prior to the big win over UMD, PSU was able to capture a big win over Salem State University, in which they beat the reigning MASCAC champions 3-2 down in Salem. The game featured a number of hard hits, and players on both sides looking to show that they are the best team within the conference. For the Panthers, Mike Freitag (Westmont, IL) found the back of the net only 3:22 into the game, and Josh Woody (Sunderland, MD) was able to make it 2-0, as he scored a few minutes later. Salem was able to find the back of the next towards the later part of the first to make it 2-1 heading into the first intermission.
Both teams had a number of chances to score goals, but the scored stayed at 2-1 until early in the third period when Salem tied the game at two. Both teams were conservative over the next few minutes, in that they wanted to make sure that they didn’t let in the next goal to let their team down.
Salem was ultimately the team that had the mistake, as Chad Barthelmess (Norristown, PA) and Mike Economos (Crystal Lake, IL) assisted on what would be the game-winning goal as Ian McGilvrey (Omaha, NE) found the back of the net with 11:21 left.
The defense was able to shut down the Vikings, and any remaining shots that got through were able to be stopped by junior Gordon Ceasar (Oak Park, CA), as he picked up his, as well as the team’s, first win of the season.
PSU was able to not have a game for the next week until they played Fitchburg State on Thursday, Nov. 13. Having that much time off between games might have been detrimental to the Panthers, as Fitchburg was able to go up 3-0 27:51 into the game. Plymouth was able to rally the troops as the 2nd period came to a close, as Freitag found the back of the net twice for the Panthers to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Both teams had double digit shots in the third, and only PSU was able to score in the period when Woody scored the game-tying goal with just under seven minutes left in the game. Neither team was able to score in overtime, so the game ended in a tie at three.
Fast-forward to the home opener, and the Panthers were shooting on all cylinders. Ryan Callahan (Londonderry, N.H.) scored the first goal of the game with just under three minutes left in the first for his first goal of the season. UMD was able to get on the board early in the second period to tie the game at one apiece, but Andrew Wigg (Lantz, Nova Scotia) tipped in a goal from McGilvrey and Zach Sarig (Reading, PA).
About nine minutes later, Freitag made it 3-1 in favor of PSU when he split two defenders and snuck the puck under the goalie to erupt the Plymouth crowd. UMD had no chance at coming back in the game, as Ceasar stopped all seven shots in the third period. Sophomore Ty Griffith (Rocklin, CA) scored his first career goal as a Panthers with an empty-netter in the third.
“It’s always great to play at home, but when you’ve been on the road for two weeks, it makes it even better,” said Head Coach Craig Russell. A number of players have stated before that playing in Plymouth is one of, if not the hardest, places to play in all of NCAA Division III hockey. “Our atmosphere and fan base is amongst the best in college hockey and will continue to get better as we have more home games,” said Russell.
There is still a bunch of room for improvement, as there has really been only one line that has consistently been able to find the back of the net for the Panthers this season. “Our success has been riding on the back of the Freitag, Wigg, Woody line that has been doing so well for us,” Russell explained.
McGilvrey, Economos, Dan Dupell (Collegeville, PA), Tieg Alward (Vail, CO) and Barthelmess are a few of the players that will allow the Panthers to become a scary team once they get into a rhythm as the season progresses.
Defensively, the Panthers have been able to be solid over the past few games despite a couple of injuries. “Tord Thoresen (Oppegard, Norway) and Tommy Dowell (Olathe, KS) have been doing well for us on defense,” Russell said. After Thanksgiving break, PSU hopes to get Colt Smelstor (Fairfax, VT) back, as he is extremely eager to play.
Looking ahead to this weekend’s home game against Worcester State, PSU will need to make sure that they don’t overlook the team picked to finish last in the conference. The Lancers have defeated Fitchburg State, 4-2 and tied UMass Dartmouth 3-3. “Worcester is going to be an extremely hard-working team,” said Russell of their upcoming opponent. “Some keys for us will be our neutral zone play, as well as our penalty kill,” said Russell. Through the first five games of the season, PSU had killed 72.7% of the power plays against them.
The crowd that showed up against UMD was unbelievable in both quantity and sound, as they didn’t allow the Corsairs to be comfortable. The Panthers will look for the Plymouth community to have as big of a turnout when they face Worcester on Sat. (Nov. 22) night at 6:00 p.m.