Posted: Feb 10, 2018
Falcons Soar Past Men’s Ice Hockey
Fitchburg, Mass. – The Fitchburg State University men's ice hockey team tallied a season-high ten markers as they skated past the Rams of Framingham State 10-2 in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action on Saturday evening at the Wallace Civic Center. The Falcons donned special purple and green jerseys for the night to promote Alzheimer's Awareness in memory of former Falcons' assistant coach Terry McNabb.
With the win Fitchburg State improves to 13-6-3, and 8-4-3 in the MASCAC. Framingham State is now 3-17-2 and 2-13 in league play.
After spotting the Rams the first goal of the night off, the Falcons reeled off four unanswered goals to hold a 4-1 lead midway through the second period. The Rams took their only lead of the game on Ryan Paul's (Morgan, Vt.) fifth goal of the season. Junior Nick DiNicola (Wolcott, Conn.) evened the game just 46 seconds later when he beat the Rams goaltender right to left to tuck his tenth of the season in the back of the net. Senior Evan Byrnes (New City, NY) notched his second of the season with a power-play tally with nine seconds remaining in the first frame to give the hosts the lead (2-1) for good.
The Falcons made it 3-1 on DiNicola's second of the game then senior Corey Hayashi (Toronto, Ont.) found an unmarked Brandon Ecklund (Fitchburg, Mass.) for a one-timer into the twine for the 4-1 advantage. Framingham got one back off the stick of senior Jake McKinnon (Framingham, Mass.) to stop the scoring streak, with a man-advantage goal with 10:36 to play in the second frame.
The Falcons offense continued flowing as they scored two late in the second to push the lead to 6-2 after two periods. First freshman Sascha Figi (Kloten, Switzerland) potted an unassisted score, then two minutes later on the power-play junior Ricky Kramer (Barnstead, NH) collected his seventh marker of the season.
The Green and Gold added four more goals (Figi, Hayashi and Patrick Germain (Auburn, Mass.) (2)) in the third period for the 10-2 final.
Fitchburg State University controlled a 39-37 margin on the shot chart.
Goaltender Brian McGrath (Worcester, Mass.) posted 31 saves in 51:55 for the win, before giving way to Quinn Wold (Aurora, Colo.) who made four save in relief. Rams netminder Adam Calabrese (Philadelphia, PA.) had 21 saves in the loss
The Falcons return to action on Thursday evening when they host Salem State University for a 7 pm MASCAC tilt. The Rams host UMass Dartmouth on the same day.