Corsairs Slip Past Falcons, 4-2

Fitchburg, Mass. – The Fitchburg State University men's ice hockey team opened the second half of the semester dropping a 4-2 decision to the Corsairs' of  UMass Dartmouth in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action on Saturday afternoon at the Wallace Civic Center.

The Basics

Score: Fitchburg State University 2, UMass Dartmouth 4
Records: Fitchburg State (7-4-1, 3-3-1 MASCAC) | UMass Dartmouth (7-6-1, 4-2-1 MASCAC)

How It Happened

The Falcons pushed across the first goal of the game just 4:27 into regulation. Junior Nick DiNicola (Wolcott, Conn.), continuing his strong season play, found freshman Sascha Figi (Kloten, Switzerland) for his ninth tally of the year. Sophomore Tyler Warila (Shirley, Mass.) posted the second assist.

UMass Dartmouth counted with a goal from senior Casey Shea (Woburn, Mass.) at the 15:30 mark to knot the score at 1-1.

Fitchburg State University broke the stalemate with under a minute left in the frame. Warila threaded a pass to DiNicola who fired a point-blank shot pass the Corsairs netminder senior Drew Michals (Newton, Mass.) for the 2-1 advantage.

UMD potted the only goal of the second stanza. Junior Kenny Tencza (Naples, Fla) wristed a long-rebound, off the pads of FSU goalie Kirby Saari (Cape Elizabeth, Me.) into the back of the cage for a 2-2 tie heading into intermission.

UMass Dartmouth capitalized on the man-advantage early in the third period to take their first lead of the game.  Junior Brendan McDonough (Wilmington, Mass.) started the play with a towering blasted from the point, after Saari made the pad save, junior Jonathan Ruiz (Williamstown, NJ) collected the loose puck and wristed a shot top-shelf for the 3-2 lead.

The Corsairs' sophomore Jeff Kirkwood (Ithaca, NY) wristed a shot into the right corner to   double the visitor lead to 4-2 with 13 minutes to play, for an insurance marker.

Inside the Numbers

Warila finished the night with 2 assists and DiNicola had a goal and an assist to pace the Falcons.

Senior Jerry Laasko (Tampere, Finland) led the Corsairs with 2 points on a pair of assists. Eight other players each notched a point.

Saari finished with 36 saves in the loss, while his counterpart Michals stopped 37 shots.

72nd meeting between the two schools in ice hockey with the Falcons 27-38-7 all-time when taking on the Corsairs.

Two teams have split the previous seven matchups (2-2-3).

Up Next

The Falcons return to action on Thursday night when they host Plymouth State University at 7:00pm while UMass Dartmouth hosts Salem State University at 7:30pm on the same evening.