WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State senior forward JoJo Carbone (Marshfield, Mass.) buried the game-winning goal midway through the third period, and Owls goalkeeper Valtteri Valtonen (Helsinki, Finland) racked up 45 saves to lead the Owls to a 5-3 victory over UMass Dartmouth in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Quarterfinal game from Amelia Park Arena in Westfield, Mass. on Saturday night.
With the victory, Westfield State advances into the MASCAC Semifinals where the Owls will travel to #1-seed and #10 nationally-ranked Plymouth State on Tuesday night at 6:00 P.M. from Hanaway Rink in Plymouth, N.H. UMass Dartmouth has been eliminated from postseason contention with the loss.
Carbone gave the Owls the lead for the remaining 9:50 of the game after a back-and-forth affair in the third period. Gianluca Marini (Lighthouse Point, Fla.) skated into the attacking zone where he dropped a pass back to Kasper Korhonen (Helsinki, Finland) who shoveled the puck back to Marini. Marini centered a pass towards the front of the net that was deflected by a pair of Corsairs defenders onto the stick of Carbone where he fired a shot that was saved but then collected his own rebound to bury his eighth of the season to give the Owls the lead.
The third period between these two teams was similar to how the game transpired in the final regular season meeting that these two played one week prior. A total of five goals were scored in the period with both sides trading scores along with momentum. Westfield entered the final frame up 2-1 after Justin Collins (Wilmington, Mass.) one-timed a shot that was delivered on a backhand-feed by Cooper Board (Salem, Mass.) from right in front of the net, sneaking it past Corsairs netminder Daniel Davidson (Surrey, B.C.) for their first lead of the night.
UMass Dartmouth opened the third period with tremendous energy, which translated into the first goal of the period between the two sides. Michael Mania (Bayville, N.J.) skated hard through the neutral zone into the Owls end, then fired a shot on net that was stopped by Valtonen with the rebound bouncing to the stick of Michael Perrone (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) who beat Valtonen high, glove side to tie the game with 16:21 left in regulation.
On the ensuing faceoff, the Corsairs nearly took the lead after a shot from Sky Silverstein (Riverhead, N.Y.) beat Valtonen, but the shot rang off the pipe, keeping the score knotted at two apiece.
Just over three minutes later, Brett Williams (Middleboro, Mass.) looped the puck out of the defensive zone, over a Corsairs defender to the feet of Board who corralled the puck and skated into the offensive end where he roofed a shot to the top-left corner of the net to temporarily give the Owls a 3-2 advantage with 13:12 left in the game.
Moving past the halfway point in the third, UMass Dartmouth found the equalizer yet again, with Jake Maynard (St. John, Ind.) dishing the puck to Silverstein who skated into the attacking zone, ripping a wrist shot from just inside the blue line that labelled the top-left corner of the net and past the blocker of Valtonen to even the game at three all with 9:50 remaining.
The scoring frenzy continued after the Silverstein tally, and it was 44 seconds after the Corsairs goal that Carbone notched the go-ahead and game-winning tally. UMass Dartmouth pulled Davidson for the final 1:28 of the contest, but the Corsairs were unable to find the back of the net, and it was Cory Morris (Kahnawake, Quebec) who iced the game with an empty-net goal to push the Owls through to the conference semifinals.
Westfield did have to come from behind in the first period as the Corsairs found the back of the net first as Perrone got the scoring started with a powerplay goal with assists from Mania and Matthew Zdanowicz (Lyndhurst, N.J.).
The Owls answered back just over the midway point of the first period with Ryan O'Halloran (Burlington, Mass.) gathering an errant pass and taking it back the other way, tucking a backhand shot past the outstretched Davidson to tie the game.
Valtonen was exceptional in net again for the Owls, registering 45 saves including 21 stops in the second period alone, allowing for Westfield to hold the lead heading into the third period. Davidson supplied 23 saves for the Corsairs.
UMass Dartmouth held a sizeable 48-28 shot advantage in the contest, but it was the Owls who tallied more shots in the third, outshooting the Corsairs 15-11 in the wild third frame.
Live coverage of the Owls' MASCAC Semifinal game against Plymouth State can be found at WestfieldStateOwls.com, which will include video, live stats, and post-game recap.