Worcester, MA- The Worcester State Men's Hockey (8-17, 7-14) team traveled to their first-round playoff game to square up with the UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs (15-10, 13-8). The Lancers are the 6th seed in this year's MASCAC tournament. Last season, the team hit the 12-win mark and played in the final against Plymouth State and were looking for a chance to head back to Plymouth State with a victory over the Corsairs. Recent form has seen the Lancers average 3.5 goals per game while only conceding 1.75, and they were hoping to keep that trend going tonight.
Final:
Worcester State: 2
UMass Dartmouth: 4
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Opening the game, Worcester State would assertively win the faceoff, but the Corsairs would find their groove significantly faster than the Lancers and amass several opportunities leading to two quick shots and two heroic saves by junior Jakub Kubik (Uherske Hradiste, Czech Republic). Just minutes later, sophomore Shane Prifrel (Inver Grove Heights, Minn) found the puck at his feet before he quickly centered it and assisted graduate student Brendan Ronan (Saugus, MA) to score the first goal of the game. Unfortunately, this lead would not last forever, as the Lancers would concede after first Collin Patterson (Rockledge, Fla) would strike the puck and put it in the back of the net to send each team into the locker room, tied 1-1 at the end of the first period.
While both teams had several chances to score, UMass-Dartmouth wasted no time getting back on the board as sophomore Kevin Johnston (Mahwah, N.J.) slotted the puck in the back of the net for the Corsairs. With Worcester State's frustrations increasing and a penalty committed to show for it, the team would fail to hold on tight. Rather, the Lancers would slowly falter as the second period progressed. Already down by one, Manyard took a shot that would be saved by Kubik before it inevitably landed in his stick for a second time, leading to a powerful, slapshot goal to widen the Corsairs lead by two goals. Manyward would persistently shoot on goal, leading to a powerful slap shot to widen the Dartmouth lead by two goals until graduate student Michael Perrone (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) would add another goal and send the trailing Lancers into the locker room with a score of 4-1.
In the hunt to dig themselves out of a three-goal deficit, the Lancers would begin the third period with a power play but fail to capitalize upon it which encapsulates most of their play throughout the game.
The third period would open with some good movement from Brighum Neuhold (Edmond, Oklahoma). This positive play would carry out and see the Lancers score the first goal of the third period. This would be at the hands of Brian Clougherty (Lynn, MA). The big forward would be assisted by two defensemen Luc Fricchione (West Springfield, MA) and Louis Valente (Dracut, MA). With 10 minutes to go in the final period, the stats sheet would see the Lancers still managing to outshoot the Corsairs but the faceoff stats would even out. The rest of the period would see some more action from both sides but there would be no more goals conceded.
Kubik would end the night with 27 saves as the Lancers wrapped up their season in a dramatic MASCAC playoff performance.