Falcons Score OT Win vs. Plymouth State, 5-4

Fitchburg, Mass. – Freshman Anthony Ceolin (Simsbury, Conn.) scored his second goal of the game with just 21 seconds remaining in overtime to propel the Fitchburg State University ice hockey team past the Panthers of Plymouth State University 5-4 in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action this evening at the Wallace Civic Center.

The Basics

Score: Fitchburg State 5, Plymouth State 4 OT
Records: Fitchburg State (11-6-2, 8-3-2 MASCAC) | Plymouth State (9-9-2, 9-3-1 MASCAC)

How It Happened

The Falcons opened the fast paced first period with a goal from sophomore Ryan Murphy (Wayzata, Minn.) at 4:23. Murphy's shot from the slot just broke through the pads of Plymouth State's goaltender senior Andreas Pettersson (Trollhattan, Sweden) for the early lead. Junior Peter Laviolette (Brentwood, Tenn.) knotted the score at 1-all when he redirected a shot from sophomore Jarrett Slear (West Chester, Penn.) past junior Brian McGrath (Worcester, Mass.).

Falcons regained the lead at 11:47 when first-year Hunter Fortin (Westerville, Ohio) put a wrist shot top shelf for the 2-1 advantage, but Plymouth's freshman Leo Stolpe (Stockholm, Sweden) counted three minutes later with his eighth of the season.

The scoring continued in the second period. Freshman Kyler Harding (Wilmington, NH) gave the Panther's the lead (3-2) with a seeing-eye goal from the blue-line for his first career goal. Senior Dean Zerby (Harrisburg, Penn.) found Ceolin in the slot for the one-timer to even the score at 3-3.

Just before intermission, freshman Egan Wolford (San Jose, Calif.) stuffed a loose puck past Pettersson to give the Falcons the 4-3 lead into intermission.

Freshman Lukas Holmqvist (Floda, Sweden) scored the lone goal in the third period at 12:14, when he took a pass from Stolpe and beat McGrath to send the game into overtime and set the stage for Ceolin's overtime game-winner.

Inside the Numbers

• The Panthers held a huge 64-43 margin in shots.
  Fitchburg State finished 0-for-2 on the power-play, while Plymouth State went 0-for-1 with the man advantage.
• McGrath stopped 60 of 64 shots he faced en-route to his eleventh win.
• Pettersson finished with 38 saves in the setback.

Up Next

Falcons will travel to Salem State University next Thursday February 13th for a MASCAC contest starting at 7 p.m. Plymouth will host the Rams of Framingham State on Saturday evening at 6:00 PM.