Men’s Ice Hockey Drops Season Finale at Worcester State
Worcester, Mass. – The Framingham State men's ice hockey team closed their season with a 6-2 loss versus Worcester State at Assumption College Thursday evening. The Rams close the season with a 6-16-2 record and a 5-12-1 mark in the conference. With the win the Lancers secure a birth into the MASCAC tournament.
Joe White set the tone early for the Lancers when he scored just 1:48 into the 1st period but that would be the only goal of the period. Worcester State had two more chances on power play – including a major that book-ended both the end of the first and the beginning of the second – but could not find the back of the net.
After nearly 26 minutes of scoreless action, the Lancers finally found the back of the net with an extra man on the ice when senior Stephen Rock potted his fourth of the campaign at the 9:03 mark.
Framingham State quickly sliced into the deficit as senior Ryan McDonald (Anchorage, AK) fed the faceoff to sophomore Tom Fahey (Hudson), who skated down to the left of the blue line and passed it to an open Brendan McCarron (Millbury) just 14 seconds later.
The Blue and Gold responded in less than two minutes and made the score 3-1 at the 11:42 mark with some pin point passing around the net.
Sophomore Alex Taddeo, found senior Brenton Dyok on the right of the net, who sent a cross in front of the crease to freshman Sean Haltam, who fired the puck past the goalie on the stick side for his third of the campaign and what proved to be the eventual match-clincher.
The Rams, however, made it a 3-2 contest with 1:49 remaining in the middle frame as Mark Essery (Rockfall, CT) tipped in his third marker of the year following an odd man rush. Junior Rich Hill (Tampa, FL) and freshman Tyler Colacchio (Bellingham) both were credited with assists on the play.
But the Worcester State defense played remarkable in the final stanza limiting the visitors to just one shot on goal in the entire frame and killed three penalties.
The offense also found its stride as the Lancers deposited three unanswered goals to capture the victory which helped put the Blue and Gold in their sixth consecutive MASCAC Tournament.
Following the second power play of the stanza, senior Rich Ledy created a turnover in the neutral zone and crossed it to an open sophomore Alex DeWitz for a short-handed marker to put WSU ahead 4-2 early in the third.
Osburn recorded his third of the year with help by Ledy and Bates as 4:49 remaining in regulation before White found the back of the net for an empty netter to cap off the run for the hosts.
Freshman Tyler Fallica saw his record improve to 7-7-1 and he turned aside 11 shots in the win. Sophomore Alessio Muggli (Rueti, Swizerland) collected 26 saves in the loss as he fell to 6-15-2 overall.
*Release courtesy of Worcester St sports information