SALEM – Salem State earned a 3-1 victory over the Falcons of Fitchburg State in MASCAC action on Thursday night at Rockett Arena. Salem State moves to 5-2-2 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference with the win while improving their regular season record to 6-7-3. The Falcons go to 4-5-1 in the MASCAC and are 7-8-1 overall.
Right from the drop of the puck, Salem State’s attack set the pace of the game as they played in the Fitchburg State end of the rink throughout most of the period, totaling 13 shots as a unit. The Vikings had a chance to display their hard work on the scoreboard with a power play opportunity after Falcon defensemen Jordan Furlane (Oakville, ONT) was sent to the penalty box after a hook. However, the Vikings’ couldn’t get any open looks at the net during the two minutes as the Falcons’ killed their first penalty of the night with six minutes remaining in the period. Like their offense, the defense of Salem State wasn’t giving the Falcons any wiggle room as they kept Jason Pucciarelli (Newmarket, ONT) relatively idle as Fitchburg State only tallied four shots on goal. Brad Jones (Fort Lauderdale, FL) kept the Falcons side of the scoreboard empty as he defended a 2-on-1 rush from Fitchburg State forwards Tyler Warlia (Shirley, MA) and Nick DiNicola (Wolcott, CT) that resulted in a Falcon turnover. Midway through a power play, Brad Jones (Fort Lauderdale, FL) fed Ryan Wilkinson (Burlington, ONT) in between the circles leading Wilkinson to bury a wrist shot over Kirby Saari’s (Cape Elizabeth, ME) glove to give the home team a 1-0 edge.
Thanks to a Justin Plumhoff (Ashburn, VA) minor penalty at the end of the first period, Salem State earned their third power play in just 22 minutes. The Falcons were able to kill the two-minutes, but surrendered a goal shortly after. Eight minutes into the second, Mustaniemi blasted home a slap shot from just inside the blue line that cruised under Saari to give the Vikings a 2-0 lead. Salem State added to their lead late in the period as Emile Levesque (Lac Beauport, QC) beat Saari on a wrist shot that snuck in a tight hole in between the cross bar and near post for the nifty goal.
Trailing 3-0 in the final period, Fitchburg State amped up their aggressive style and broke the shutout. With just over five minutes remaining in the game, Cameron Snyder (Shawnee, KS) beat Pucciarelli low and away on the power play to cut the deficit to 3-1. However, Salem State was able to hold off the late rush from the Falcons to secure the 3-1 win.
Pucciarelli picked up the victory with his 26 saves. Saari made 32 saves as he allowed all three goals in the loss.
Levesque led all skaters with two points as he earned an assist on the Mustaniemi goal in the second period to complement his goal.
BEVERLY – The No. 12/12 nationally ranked Endicott men’s ice hockey team extended its NCAA all divisions longest active winning streak on Thursday night against Becker College with a 5-1 victory over the Hawks.
Winners of 12 straight games, the Gulls are now 12-2-2 overall and 6-2-1 in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play. Becker falls to 5-11-0 and 4-5-0 in conference contests this season.
The Gulls used five different goal scorers in tonight’s victory including Lloyd Hayes, Jack Musil, Ross Olsson, Logan Day, and Joseph Slovak, while goaltender Kevin Aldridge stopped 27 shots in net.
Endicott outscored Becker, 4-1, in the first before Slovak’s tally with 40-seconds left in the matchup to officially lock up the game.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- The Gulls are ranked No. 12 nationally in both the D3hockey.com and USCHO.com national polls.
- Endicott is 3-0-0 in the all-time series versus Becker.
FOR THE FOES
Connor Merrick found the back of the net for Becker at the 5:54 mark of the first to tie the game up at 1-1 before Endicott rallied for three straight goals to close out the stanza.
Tyler Stepke compiled 37 saves in the loss.
WHAT’S NEXT
Endicott hosts the University of New England this Saturday in a league game at 2:50 PM. Becker takes on Suffolk on Saturday at 8:30 PM.
