Hockey Season Ends in Semis, 4-2 To Plymouth

PLYMOUTH, N.H. –   Westfield State's season came to an end in the semifinals of the MASCAC men's ice hockey tournament at the Hanaway Rink on Tuesday evening with a 4-2 loss to top seeded Plymouth State.

Plymouth (14-9-3) advances to Saturday's championship game to play the winner of tonight's other semifinal round game between #2 Fitchburg State and #3 UMass Dartmouth

#4Westfield's season draws to a close at 12-10-5.  The Owls got a 36 save performance from senior goaltender Thierry Messervier, who closed out his two-year career at Westfield State after transferring from Plymouth.

Plymouth grabbed a 1-0 lead just 3:38 into the contest when Marcus Seidl redirected a shot from the point past Messervier.  The Panthers went up 2-0 when Mike McPherson stuffed home a rebound on the left side at the 10:57 mark.

But the Owls responded as they did all night long.

Westfield trimmed the lead to 2-1 just 17 seconds later when Jake Ratcliffe broke in on the right side and centered the puck to Robert Neuwirth, who subtly redirected it five-hole past goalie Andreas Petterson for his 11^th goal of the season.

Westfield opened the second period with a 1:25 fragment of a power play, which then was extended when Neuwirth drew a boarding penalty from the Panthers, which created a 5-3 for 12 seconds, and then another 1:48 of 5 v 4 time.  Westfield generated 10 shots on goal, all saved by Petterson, and had several more blocked and the Owls were unable to score on the power play.  As soon as the Panthers were back at full strength, McPherson scored on a counter attack to boost the lead to 3-1 with 16:23 left in the second period.

Again the Owls answered, this time Westfield's Danny Ferri sniped a wrister from the top Of the right face-off circle off a feed from Backstrom to trim it back to 3-2 with 14:10 left.

Owls skated off a power play midway through the period after a Panther collided with Messervier, and the Owls retaliated to protect their goalkeeper.

Messervier stayed in the game, making a spectacular sprawling save on Jake Gerbner break in, then another on Gerbner on a 2 v1 with 5:23 left in the period.

Then it was Petterson's turn, making a huge save on Justin Alves after he took no look pass with seconds left in second period.

The third period was all Messervier, as he stoned Myles Abbate on a breakaway 11:33 left, then stopped a series of shots at point blank w 337 left.

Messervier was finally pulled for the extra skater with 1:18  left as the Owls looked to tie, but Plymouth salted the game away when Gerbner won the puck on the edge of the far crease and trickled a shot the length of the ice which found the empty net with two seconds left in regulation.