Men's Ice Hockey Bracket

Plymouth State will be the one to beat as the top seed in the 2024-25 MASCAC Men's Ice Hockey Tournament which begins on Thursday with the quarterfinal round of games.

Thursday kicks off a first-time format for the men's ice hockey tournament where four games will be contested between the eight seeds. Two seed Anna Maria will host seventh seed Westfield State at 5:40 pm, top seed Plymouth State will host eight seed MCLA at 6 pm while three seed Salem State will host sixth seed UMass Dartmouth with both games at 6 pm and closing out the quarterfinal round is fourth seed Fitchburg State hosting fifth seed Worcester State at 6:30 pm. 

The highest remaining seed will then host the lowest remaining seed in the semifinal round on Saturday, March 1 while the second highest remaining seed will then face the second lowest remaining seed. The two semifinal winners will then meet a week later on March 8 for the MASCAC Tournament crown and NCAA Tournament bid.

The Panthers ended the regular season 16-2 to earn their eighth straight MASCAC Regular Season title. Reigning MASCAC Player of the Year Will Redick leads the way for the offense with a conference-leading 17 goals, including four power play tallies with 17 assists for 34 points. He finished the season at +18 while scoring one hat trick on the year. 

Anna Maria lands the second seed by virtue of the league tiebreaker after going 14-4 in their first season in the MASCAC. Derek Raposo finished the regular season first in the league in assists with 24 while tallying five goals for 29 points. He was +11 on the year with one power play goal and a game-winner for the AMCATS.

Grabbing the third seed is Salem State who also was 14-4 in league play. Landyn Greatorex closed out the regular season with a conference-leading 37 points on 14 goals and 23 assists. His assist numbers were the second-best in the league. In his 17 games started, Greatorex tallied three game-winners with a hat trick to finish the year at +19. 

Earning the final quarterfinal hosting duties is Fitchburg State with the fourth seed. The Falcons were 8-9-1 in conference action, led by Hunter Dunn who ended the regular season with 22 points on nine goals and 13 assists while two power-play scores and two game-winners with a +12 rating. 

Worcester State is the fifth seed for the tournament after going 8-8-2. Brigham Neuhold tallied the most goals for the Lancers following the conclusion of the regular season with 13 and assisting on 12 others for 25 points and a +10 rating. Of those 13 goals, he netted the game-winner twice over his 25 games played. 

Sitting in the sixth spot is UMass Dartmouth. The Corsairs were 8-9-1 during the MASCAC clip this season. Tyler Stewart was in the top three of the league at the end of the year with 36 points on 15 goals and 21 assists. He scored six power-play goals with two of the being the game-winners for the team. 

Closing out this year's tournament field is Westfield State and MCLA with the seventh and eighth seed. In his first season with the Owls, Aiden Winslow was atop the conference leaderboard in several goaltending categories, including second in save percentage at .930, third with a 2.57 goals against average and fourth with 561 saves. For the Trailblazers, Mat Gover repeated his puck stopping performance from last season between the pipes, leading the MASCAC with 972 saves while registering a 3.61 GAA and .916 save percentage. 

During last year's tournament, Plymouth State claimed the MASCAC title after defeating Fitchburg State 3-0 to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.