Fitchburg State Surges Past Ice Hockey
Fitchburg, Mass. – Freshman forward Ryan Connolly (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) registered his first hat trick of the season, as the Fitchburg State ice hockey defeated Framingham State 10-1 in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action this evening at the Wallace Civic Center.
In the first period of play, Fitchburg State jumped out to an early lead, scoring just 1:17 into the frame as Connolly fired a shot into the back of the net for his sixth marker of the year for the 1-0 margin. Senior Joseph Caveney (Fitchburg, Mass.) and sophomore Shawn Bradley (Tewksbury, Mass.) assisted on the play.
The Falcons doubled their lead (2-0) four minutes later when freshman Kevin Holmes (Newburyport, Mass.) slipped the puck inside the right post for his second score of the year, using feeds from sophomore Sean Loebs (Cresskill, N.J.) and freshman Nat Rojas (Elkridge, Md.).
The Green and Gold upped their lead at the 14:38 mark as Connolly blasted a slapped shot into the cage for his second goal of the contest to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.
In the second stanza, Fitchburg State erupted for five goals in the period. Celli opened the scoring at the 4:52 mark, collecting his sixth marker on the year. Before the hosts put the game out of reach as Connolly, senior Trevor Lawler (Fitchburg, Mass.) and sophomores Derek Giansanti (Newington, Conn.) and Thomas Carlow (Franklin, Mass.) all found the back to net to put the Falcons up 8-0 heading into the final period of play.
In the third frame, the hosts secured their seventh victory on the year as Connolly struck for his fourth score of the night to make the score 9-0. Framingham State broke up the shutout bid at the 3:57 mark when junior Daniel Roy (Billerica, Mass.) notched his third goal of the season off feeds from Dean Cavicchi (Plymouth, Mass.) and Roy Monson (Stoneham, Mass.) before Caveney capped the scoring 30 seconds later, resulting in the 10-1 final.
Throughout the contest, Fitchburg State outshot Framingham State, 44-26, while the Rams finished 0-for-1 on the power-play and the Falcons were 2-for-5. In net, junior Randy Wolcott (East Haven, Conn.) posted 22 saves for the Falcons in 44 minutes of work, while junior Nick Cafrelli (San Jose, Cali.) stopped 20 shots for Framingham State in the setback before giving way to junior Herbert Kyles (Overland Park, KS) who made 14 stops.
Fitchburg State (7-10-2, 6-6-1 MASCAC) returns to action on Saturday as it hosts the Vikings of Salem State University at 4 p.m. Framingham State (2-16-1, 0-12-1 MASCAC) will host Plymouth State University Saturday for a contest starting at 2:30 p.m.