WESTFIELD, Mass. - Westfield State senior Jackson Leef (Fort Wayne, Ind.) netted a goal for his 100th career point late, but it wasn't enough as Westfield State fell to Plymouth State by a 3-1 score in the final Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season game of the year for both teams.
Regular-season champion Plymouth finishes the year 16-1-1 in the MASCAC and 18-5-2. The Panthers will be the top seed in the MASCAC tournament and await the winner of Tuesday's #4/#5 game between Fitchburg and Worcester State.
Westfield falls to 10-14, 6-12 in the MASCAC, and the Owls will be the number 6 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. The Owls will travel to #3 seeded UMass Dartmouth next Saturday.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead after the first period on a Michael Covach (Shillington, Pa.) goal at 17:01.
Plymouth salted the game away with a pair of markers in the second period. Ludvig Steenberg (Stockholm, Sweden) tallied on a rebound with assists from Drake Longaker (San Jose, Calif.) and Tim Perron (Northborough, Mass.) at 11:24 for what proved to be the game winner. Chris Zuccaro (Hudson, N.H.) added the Panthers third goal at 13:36 with assists from Michael Economos (Crystal Lake, Ill.) and Ryan Stevens (Colleyville, Texas).
Leef trimmed the Panthers lead to 3-1 by netting the Owls' lone marker on a slapshot from the blueline with 22.1 seconds left in regulation. Westfield State goaltender Jonathan LoParco (Vaughn, Ont.) stopped 27 shots.
Westfield held a 35-30 edge in shots, but Evan Morelli made 34 saves in net for the Panthers. No penalties were recorded by either team in the game.
Leef ranks 17th on the Owls career scoring list with exactly 100 points on 45 goals and 55 assists. He ranks third among Owls scorers since the program returned to the ice in 2009, behind Dennis Zak '11 with 127 and Pat Nelson '12 with 108. Leef's 45 goals are tied for 12th all time with Brian Cox '83, and third among the new generation behind only Zak and Dalton Jay '16.
