Justin Siewierski

Editor-in-Chief

jrsiewierski@plymouth.edu

Plymouth State men’s hockey ended their three-game win streak this past Wednesday night, falling to Castleton (5-8-0) 3-1. In their last game of the winter semester, the team dropped just its third game of the season (8-2-1, 5-1) and drop to .500 on the road. Junior Ryan Stevens (Colleyville, Texas) had the lone goal for the Panthers.

The Panthers struck just 24 seconds into the first period when a wrist shot from Chris Zuccaro (Hudson, N.H.) from the far side bounced onto the stick of Stevens. After making a nice move through the crease, the junior push a backhand shot through the five-hole to give the visitors the early lead and Zuccaro the assist. Stevens would leave three minutes after, however, after a questionable major penalty followed by a game misconduct.

Castleton was able to score during that five-minute major penalty. Matt Bloomer wristed a shot just inside the blue line, and PSU keeper Thierry Messervier (Montreal, Que.) never saw it. The Panthers were able to keep the Spartans off the score sheet for the rest of the first period.

The second period saw scoring from neither team, but Plymouth was able to kill of a few more penalties before setting up the third. Just over two minutes into the final frame, Kurt Johnson found the back of the net to give Castleton the 2-1 advantage. A four-on-four scenario,

Johnson one-timed a shot just in front of Messervier to give the home team the advantage.

Castleton found the back of the net once more with an empty net and 12 seconds on the board to ice the game.

Plymouth found themselves in the box eight times, accumulating over 25 minutes in the sin bin. Just 16 shots total are the least amount in any game this season, with 15 of them coming in the final two minutes.

Thierry Messervier took the loss Wednesday night, turning away 29 shots while falling to 0-2-1 on the season.

The Panthers have a long break ahead of them, with their first game back from the holiday break January 5th at home against non-conference Wentworth.