Men's Hockey Looks to Claw Out of Early Hole

The Men's Hockey team looks to rebound against Worcester State on Saturday afternoon after falling to UMass Dartmouth last weekend. The loss put the Panthers record to 2-4, and 1-2 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC).

Before the UMD game, PSU was able to defeat Fitchburg State in a big 6-3 win to get their first win within the MASCAC.

Against the Falcons of Fitchburg, senior goalie Tyler Ingerson (Concord, N.H.) recorded 26 saves in the 6-3 win. This was the second straight win that Ingerson had at home against Fitchburg, as he shut them down in a 1-0 win. By beating Fitchburg, Ingerson recorded his 9^th win in the green and white.

A number of players stepped up, as sophomore Andrew Wigg (Lantz, N.S.) scored his first two goals of the season. One of Wigg's goals was an empty-netter that put the game on ice for the Panthers. Junior Zach Sarig (Reading, PA) had yet another huge game, as he had two assists to go along with his third period goal that gave the Panthers the lead for good. Only :20 after Sarig's goal, junior Mike Freitag (Westmont, IL) found the back of the net for his first goal of the season.

Ian McGilvrey (Omaha, NB) and Baxter Strachan (Sioux City, IA) were the other two players to score for Plymouth. For Strachan, this was his first career goal for PSU, in which he had a break-away goal after a nice pass from Mike Economos (Crystal Lake, IL).

Defenders Colt Smelstor (Fairfax, VT), Erik Strom (Gothenburg, Sweden), and senior captain Dave Walters (Ottawa, Ont) limited Fitchburg to only seven shots on goal in the third period. Walters also added a fantastic timeout speech to the team after Freitag's goal. Head Coach Craig Russell called this speech "the turning point of the game." Moments like this is what makes Walters a true leader of the team, and why he was named captain.

Against the Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth, the Panthers weren't quite able to rally from a 2-0 deficit to pull out the win despite 41 saves from Ingerson. This is the most Ingerson has had in a game since facing Castleton in 2012.

PSU was able to tie the game at two after goals from Josh Woody (Sunderland, MD) and Zach Fox (Sandown, N.H.), but wasn't able to capture the lead. UMD scored only :21 into the third period, and while McGilvrey was able to tie the game back up at three midway through the period, the Corsairs were able to score with 6:14 left in the match.

Something positive to come out of the loss is that the Panthers were able to convert on three powerplay opportunities. With over 40 minutes of combined penalty minutes between both teams, it is obvious that these teams do not like each other whatsoever. Remember, the Corsairs are the team that knocked the Panthers out of the MASCAC championship game last season. With that stated, watch for these two teams to go at it in their next contest, in which UMD comes to Plymouth on January 18^th.

The Panthers have only two home game remaining before Winter Break, in which they will play Framingham State on December 5^th, and then Westfield State on the 7^th.