Westfield, Mass.- The Westfield State men's ice hockey team fell to Salem State, 4-2, in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinal contest this Tuesday at Amelia Park Ice Arena in Westfield, Massachusetts.
Salem State is now 12-12 on the season, while Westfield State's season comes to a finish at 13-12-2.
Salem got the scoring started at 12:29 of the opening stanza when a rebounded shot from Connor Woolley (Poghquag, N.Y.) was finished off by Richard Coyle (Weymouth, Mass.) after a brief scrum in front of the goal. The Vikings would further their lead to two 15 minutes and 58 seconds into the second period, as Woolley slid one past Westfield's Valtteri Valtonen (Helsinki, Finland) for his first goal and second point of the night.
Joseph Carbone (Marshfield, Mass.) would bring the Owls to within one with 13 ticks left on the clock in the second period. Carbone blasted a wrister that found top-left twine with Andrew McCormick (Canton, N.Y.) and Chuck Costello (Philadelphia, PA) each recording assists on the score.
Westfield found themselves in a man-down situation eight minutes into the third period which Salem took advantage of as Erik Larsson (Lake Tahoe, Calif.) wheeled into the offensive zone and found Joe Smith (Holbrook, Mass.) across the crease, giving Salem a two-goal lead once again.
The Owls would continue to rally and apply pressure in the offensive zone which paid off 14 minutes and 35 seconds into the final stanza. Senior captain, John-Michael DiGregorio (Montreal, Quebec) found twine after catching a cross-crease pass from Mathieu Jones (Gatineau, Quebec), cutting the Vikings lead in half. Andrew McCormick was also in on the play, tallying his second helper of the game.
The late push from Westfield unfortunately came up short and Joe Smith of the Vikings iced the game on an empty net strike with 12 seconds left in regulation for his second goal of the evening.
Westfield outshot the Vikings, 41-39.
Owls goalie Valtteri Valtonen made 35 saves on 38 shots faced.
Salem's Aaron Mercer (Corner Brook, Newfoundland) finished with 39 saves on 41 attempts.
Salem will travel up to Holderness, New Hampshire to face off against the regular season champion Plymouth State Panthers in the MASCAC championship game on March 5th.
-by Evan Levrault Sports Information Intern