Men’s Hockey Defeats Westfield, Advance to MASCAC Championship

Every team around the campus of Plymouth State University always has a goal of making it to their respective conference’s championship game. For the Plymouth State Men’s hockey team, they will have the ability to potentially exceed this goal.

On Tuesday (3/3) night the Panthers defeated the Westfield State Owls 3-0 to advance to the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Championship game on Saturday (3/7) night at 6:00 P.M.

PSU knew that they would have a tough game against the Owls, as Westfield defeated Worcester State lasts weekend to advance to the MASCAC Semi-final game. Both teams struggled to develop any offensive pressure in the first few minutes of the game, but fortunately for PSU, Andrew Wigg (Lantz, Nova Scotia) was able to find the back of the net after Josh Woody (Sunderland, MD) and Mike Freitag (Westmont, IL) set the junior up.

As the Owls looked to even the score, PSU continued to put the offensive pressure on the Westfield goalie, and the pressure resulted in Freitag finding the back of the net himself after Woody and Colt Smelstor (Fairfax, VT) set Freitag up. With PSU holding a 2-0 lead midway through the first period, the team knew that they would have to play stout defense to assure themselves of the win.

The defense led by Erik Strom (Gothenburg, Sweden), Tord Thoresen (Oppegard, Norway), Zach Sarig (Reading, PA) and Matt Vermillion (South Lyon, MI) were able to hold Westfield to only six shots in the first period. Limiting shots on junior Gordon Ceasar (Oak Park, CA) allowed PSU to keep the score at 2-0 at the end of the first period, as he stopped all six shots.

As the second period got underway, the Owls were able to jump on the powerplay after a Josh Woody penalty, but weren’t able to find the back of the net. Almost midway through the 2^nd period, Chad Barthelmess (Norristown, PA) redirected a shot that found the back of the net to take a 3-0 lead. Strom and Mike Economos (Crystal Lake, IL) had the assists on Barthelmess’s goal. Ceasar was able to have another strong period in the second, as he stopped the 12 shots he faced in the period.

With a 3-0 lead, Craig Russell didn’t tell his team to play defensive, as the Panthers had 14 shots on net in the third period. While none of these shots were able to find the back of the net, Plymouth defense played just as well, as they were able to shut-out Westfield for the game. Ceasar was able to record his first shutout of the season, but wouldn’t take credit. “The student section was rocking, and the penalty kill had my back and frustrated Westfield all night,” Ceasar stated. Plymouth’s penalty kill was able to stop all six attempts for the game.

Teammates were quick to say how good Ceasar was against Westfield, as Economos stated, “Gordie was our best player on the ice, he was a brick wall in net.” 

One consistent thing about this team is that no one will take credit, as they would much rather give it to their teammates, or other big factors. As Ceasar stated, the student section was a factor in the game, and Mike Freitag agreed as well. “It was a huge team effort from all 20 guys, and the student section was incredible,” Freitag noted.

There isn’t a single team around the MASCAC that is able to have the home-ice advantage that PSU is able to obtain, and teams truly dread coming up to Plymouth to face the Panthers. While the goal of the season may be to play in the MASCAC championship game, the desire to win the regular season championship is just as great, so that you are able to obtain home-ice advantage.

By clinching the one seed, PSU will be hosting the MASCAC championship game, which will be against Salem State University. Not only does Salem come into the game having recorded a dominant game against UMass Dartmouth (a 4-0 win), but have a bitter taste in their mouth upon falling to PSU three times already this season.

Both teams have been at the top of the conference for the past few seasons, and face each other for the second consecutive year in the MASCAC championship game. Salem will be looking to do what the Panthers were unable to do last season, and that is to go on the road, and win the championship game. Both teams acknowledge the fact that they don’t like each other, and shapes up to be a heck of a match-up on Saturday.

While Plymouth was able to capture all three games during the 2014-2015 regular season, each game was extremely competitive. PSU defeated Salem 3-2 in early November on a late Ian McGilvrey (Omaha, NE) goal, and defeated the Vikings with the same score in January. The third, and most recent game of the season (which took place on 2/5) was a 5-2 win.

With a NCAA tournament berth at stake, it will be a game that could end up being like the match-up of these two teams in 2012. With the score tied at 4, more than one overtime was needed, and it wasn’t until Kyle Weiland scored in the second overtime before PSU pulled out the 5-4 victory.

Watch for a great game to unfold on Saturday night, and be sure to arrive at the ice arena well before the 6:00 P.M. start time to assure a seat. Make sure to be loud and proud, as the Panthers love it when the student section is able to help them prevail.