The turn of the calendar to February has been the same as the end of January, as the Panthers of the Plymouth State hockey team are riding a six game winning streak (three wins to end Jan., three wins to start Feb.) All of these wins have been within the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), and have allowed PSU to improve their overall record to 12-7-3 (12-2-1 within the MASCAC).
Since the last issue of The Clock came out, Plymouth has been able to capture wins over some of the better teams within the conference. Against defending MASCAC champion Salem State, PSU was able to capture a big 5-2 win down in Massachusetts, giving them the season sweep over the Vikings. These games are always extremely physical, and come down to the late stages of the third period.
With Plymouth holding on to a 4-1 lead in the early stages of the third period, Gordon Ceasar (Oak Park, CA) knew that he would have to be strong over the last 20 minutes of the third period to get the win. Up to that point of the game, Ceasar had stopped 21 of 22 shots, and was able to have a relatively successful third, as he stopped 13 of 14 shots in the last frame of the game. Despite Salem cutting the lead to 4-2, Senior Mike Freitag (Westmont, IL) found the back of the net with 30 seconds left to clinch the game with a 5-2 final. For the game, Freitag had four points (two goals, and two assists), while Chad Barthelmess (Norristown, PA), Josh Woody (Sunderland, MD) and Mike Economos (Crystal Lake, IL) scored as well.
While the win against Salem allowed PSU to enhance their lead over their MASCAC foes, the Panthers had their next game against a team that had previous beat them, in Fitchburg State.
Another road-trip down to Massachusetts resulted in another victory for Plymouth, as Ceasar stopped 29 of 31 shots for the 6-2 victory. Freitag and Economos continued their strong performances, scoring two goals apiece, while Barthelmess and junior Andrew Wigg (Lantz, Nova Scotia) scored goals as well. For Wigg, this was the 13th consecutive game he recorded at least a point in to give him 31 points up to this point of the season.
In the most recent game for the team, Plymouth was finally able to host a game, as the Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth came into town. UMD had given the Panthers their last loss, as Plymouth fell 8-2 back on January 17th. Knowing that the Corsairs had been PSU’s most recent loss, this game was going to be big for both respective teams.
In the opening frame, the Panthers came out strong, as Economos and Woody scored in the first 14 minutes of the game to go up 2-0. The Corsairs weren’t going to go down without a fight, as they were able to score a powerplay goal only 1:22 into the second period. It appeared that UMD would tie the game up midway through the second period, as they were on a 5-on-3 advantage for about 1:30, and a powerplay for the adjacent 3:30. Fortunately for PSU, players like Ryan Callahan (Londonderry, NH), Colt Smelstor (Fairfax, VT) and Tieg Alward (Vail, CO) were able to have fantastic forecheck, and didn’t allow the Corsairs to score over this five-minute period. The crowd also played a role within this part of the game, as they were consistently cheering on PSU, and letting UMD hear it when they made a bad pass, or took a terrible shot.
Despite the Corsairs tying up the score at 2 with 3:45 left in the second, both teams knew that this game would come down to the third period, which it indeed did.
The last 20-minute frame was extremely exciting, as UMD was on the powerplay a number of times due to questionable calls. Fortunately for PSU, Smelstor, Tord Thoresen (Oppegard, Norway), Baxter Strachan (Sioux City, IA) and Ceasar limited the opportunities for the visitors, and kept the game at a tie.
With about four minutes left in regulation, sophomore Ian McGilvrey (Omaha, NE) appeared to be on his way to scoring until the goalie for UMD had a great save. Woody then checked the ensuing Corsair who had the puck, passed it off to Freitag, and the senior was able to score his 10th goal of the season.
After the go-ahead goal, UMD looked to tie the game back up, but was unable to, as Ceasar made a few big saves in the closing minutes. The win allowed the Panthers to capture yet another regular season MASCAC title.
Winning the regular season outright means that the Panthers won’t have to leave Plymouth within the MASCAC playoffs. “We know we’ll be able to play in front of the best fans until the NCAA tournament,” Head Coach Craig Russell stated. Home-ice advantage is big within the MASCAC, as last year’s champion, Salem State, was able to win the post-season tournament as the #1 seed last season. Salem’s win in the championship game last season was over the Panthers.
“Our focus was getting the #1 seed, which we were blessed to have accomplished so early,” Russell also added. According to a few members of the team, as well as Russell, this is the earliest that any team within the MASCAC has clinched the #1 seed. Despite clinching early, don’t think that PSU will back down for the last three games of their regular season. “We can be the first MASCAC team to win 15 games in the regular season, which is something I’d be very proud of accomplishing,” Russell explained.
PSU shouldn’t need much extra motivation in a few of these games, including last night’s (Feb. 19th) game against Worcester State. The reason why the extra motivation shouldn’t be needed, is that this game is Senior Night for five players on the team. For Freitag, Barthelmess, Kyle Brumfield (Bowie, MD), Zac Enstrom (South Windsor, CT) and Zach Sarig (Reading, PA) they were acknowledged for their four years at PSU (with Barthelmess being at PSU for two years).
Russell spoke highly of all of his seniors. “Zach Sarig has been our go-to-guy on defense and Kyle Brumfield has been a great guy for the rest of the team to rally around as well. Chad Barthelmess has really started to find his game over the last month, and has been adding a lot of energy to our game. Zac Enstrom has been a guy that everyone likes seeing every day and has battle his way to earning some very well deserved playing time.” For Enstrom, he was able to get the start against Worcester, which was his first start of the season. “Mike Freitag has been a guy we’ve relied on for so many things over his 4 years, and especially this year,” Russell added.
All five seniors have gone through a lot throughout the duration of time they have been at PSU, but look to add a few more chapters to their careers in the green and white.