PSU Men’s Ice Hockey Defeats Fitchburg State in Opening Round of Playoffs, 6 – 1

Waterville Valley, NH – On Saturday, Feb 26, the PSU men’s ice hockey team took down Fitchburg State in the opening round of the ECAC Northeast Conference playoffs with a final tally of 6 – 1. Plymouth was looking for their first playoff victory since 1994 and checked into the game with a regular season record of 12-9-2, while Fitchburg State entered the game at 12-11-1. The Panthers were the first to light up the scoreboard on the night at just 2:49 after the first puck was dropped. Junior Paul Feeney found the back of the net on the play with assists coming from classmates Rory Nickerson and Dennis Kane. That 1-0 PSU advantage stood through the first 20 minutes of play. The score of the game doubled just over a minute into the second frame as PSU senior Michael Bodnar put one between the pipes with the aid of teammates Chris Cadieux (freshman) and Deni Bojadzic (freshman). The ice panthers fended off Fitchburg State and was able to close out the second period with a 2-0 lead over their guests. To continue their pattern of early period scoring, PSU opened the final frame of play with a goal under the first minute. Max Wernert (senior) was credited with the score while Kane and Nickerson came with assists on the play. PSU soon found themselves up 4-0 after Feeney notched his second goal of the game on a powerplay, and junior Nick DeBaggiss and Nickerson participated on the play by both dishing out assists. Around 13:23 into the last frame, PSU tacked on their fifth score against the visitors thanks to a powerplay score by junior Matt Withers, and assists coming from Bojadzic and Kane. Before one could take long enough to exclaim the word “superfans,” PSU buried it’s sixth goal to put the final nail in the coffin. They accomplished this feat by Wernert notching his second goal of the period and game, and assists coming from sophomore Goose LaCroix and freshman Topo LaCroix. A shutout of Fitchburg seemed imminent, however hopes of that were erased with just over two minutes left on the clock. Fitchburg’s own Mike LaRoche came to put in a powerplay goal to adjust the score to 6-1, but was set in stone when the final buzzer sounded. PSU’s Karl “Sunshine” Helgesson closed out the game with another outstanding performance by tallying 23 saves and allowing only one goal on the night’s affair. The PSU victory affirmed not only a solid 13-9-2 record, but it became it’s fifth straight win, and seventh win out of their last eight games. Meanwhile, Fitchburg State dropped to an even .500 at 12-12-1. The Panthers will now advance, and is forced to visit the top seeded Curry College on Wednesday, March 2 at 7:35 pm.