Ice Hockey Rallies from Three Goal Deficit to Earn Draw with Salem State

Salem, Mass. – Junior forward Brendan McCarron (Millbury, Mass.) scored with a minute and a half remaining to force overtime as the Framingham State University Rams battled from behind and played the Salem State University Vikings to a 4-4 overtime tie at Rockett Arena on Saturday afternoon in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action.

The Rams improve to 6-6-2 on the season and 4-3-2 in the conference, while the Vikings now stand at 8-6-1 overall and 5-3-1 in the MASCAC.

The first 11:40 moved quickly despite each team having only three shots on net, but then the Vikings struck, with an unassisted goal from Chris Mastropietro (Revere, Mass.). Thirty seconds later the Rams countered when junior forward Ryan McDonald (Anchorage, AK) put the puck in the back of the net off an Eric Ward (Haverhill, Mass.) assist.  Salem State reclaimed a 2-1 lead when Andrew Bettencourt (Riverside, RI) hit a laser into the net.  Cameron Banwell (Toronto, ON) was credited with the assist.

In the second period, some nice triangle passing by Gabriel Cromp (Montreal, Quebec) and Brad Jones (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) led to a wrist shot by Chad Goodwin (Whitinsville, Mass.) that increased Salem State's lead to 3-1.  Goodwin added his second of the period as Cromp and Eric Defelice (Chalfont, PA) assisted to put Salem in control, 4-1. However, at the 14:47 mark Framingham's Cameron Hoffman (Fort Stevens, WA) put one past Ryan Sutliffe (Las Vegas, Nevada) off an assist from Dylan Cosford (Windsor, ON) to make it a 4-2 game going into the third.

Just 2:11 into the final period, the Rams' Dean Cavicchi (Plymouth, Mass.) got his own rebound and went top shelf as the Rams cut the deficit to 4-3 before McCarron would force the puck in the net to tie the game at 4-4 and send it to overtime.

Both teams combined for only three shots in the extra period as the game would end 4-4.

Salem State's Sutliffe made 16 saves while Framingham State senior goaltender Nick Cafrelli (San Jose, CA) stopped 27 attempts. The Vikings ended up with a 31-20 advantage in shots.

Salem State will play at UMass-Dartmouth on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., while Framingham State will face-off at 5:45 p.m. at Worcester State also on Thursday.

Release courtesy of SSU Sports Information.