Fitchburg State Shoots Past Westfield State, 5-2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Westfield St. (11-10-1, 8-6-1) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
|
Fitchburg St. (10-10-2, 8-6-1) | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
Celli nets two goals in Falcons MASCAC victory
FITCHBURG, Mass. – Junior forward John Celli collected two goals as the Fitchburg State ice hockey defeated Westfield State University, 5-2 in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action at the Wallace Civic Center this evening.
In the first period, Fitchburg State nearly opened the scoring at the 12:15 mark as junior forward Stephen Carlette collected a loose puck in near the left faceoff circle and fired a shot on towards goal, but Owls goaltender Ian Perrrier made a stellar save to keep the 0-0 stalemate intact.
The Owls grabbed the lead with just under a minute and a half remaining the frame when senior Frank Zuccaro found the back of net on the power-play with his seventh marker of the season for the 1-0 advantage after 20 minutes of play.
In the middle stanza, the Green and Gold knotted the score (1-1) at the 3:26 mark as junior Ryan Connolly blasted a shot into the upper right corner of the net off his own rebound for his eighth tally on the year as Mike Morrison and Paul Falanga assisted on the play.
The Falcons took the lead four minutes later when junior Nat Rojas wristed a shot inside the far post on feed from newcomer Nick Govig and Carlette for his third goal of the season for the 2-1 margin.
Westfield State retied the contest (2-2) midway through the period as freshman Roman Pfennings slide a pass over to sophomore Maxime Richard, who deposited the puck into the back of the net for his tenth marker on the season.
The hosts regained the lead at the 15:43 mark when Falanga buried a shot inside the right post off a scramble in front of the net off assists from Connolly and sophomore Jordan Furlane to make the score 3-2 before Celli connected on his 11th goal on the year for the 4-2 advantage after two periods of play.
In the final period of play, Fitchburg State secured the victory with just over one minute remaining in regulation as Celli gathered a pair of feeds from Morrison and sophomore Cameron Snyder and wristed a shot into the empty net, resulting in the 5-2 final.
Throughout the contest, Fitchburg State held a 54-30 advantage in shots, while the Owls finished 1-for-3 on the power play. In net, senior Ryan Wysocki recorded 27 saves for the Falcons in the complete game effort, while Perrier posted 49 stops for Westfield State in the setback.
Fitchburg State (10-10-2, 8-6-1 MASCAC) returns to action on Thursday as it travels to Framingham State University for a matchup starting at 7:30 p.m. Westfield State (11-10-1, 8-6-1 MASCAC) will visit UMass Dartmouth on Thursday at 7 p.m.