Miraldo’s Four Point Night Powers Owls Past Rams, 5-4

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State forward Christopher Miraldo (Montreal, Quebec) registered two goals and added two assists as the Owls held off a third-period surge from Framingham State to win 5-4 in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game from Framingham, Mass. on Thursday night.

Playing in their first game since December 12, the Owls returned to action to tally their sixth win of the season, improving to 6-6 overall and 2-3 in the MASCAC. The Rams drop to 1-8-1 on the season and 0-4 in conference play.

A strong opening 40 minutes staked the Owls to a four-goal cushion. Midway through the first period, Framingham briefly cleared the puck out of the zone with the Owls quickly re-entering the offensive zone as Julian Boisclair (Voorhees, N.J.) chipped the puck to Emile Pichette (Saint-Eustache, Quebec) who skated down the boards and directed a feed back to the middle of the zone to Boisclair. Boisclair found Miraldo crashing on the left side of the ice where he wristed home his sixth goal of the season at the 10:36 mark of the first.

After the Rams took advantage of a power play goal to tie the game, the Owls were fast to answer in the closing minutes of the opening period, starting with a suffocating forecheck which allowed Westfield to keep the puck in the Framingham end. The puck found Pichette who made a spinning pass to the tape of Emile Tremblay (Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec) who was in a similar spot to Miraldo's goal, beating Liam Kilgallen (Brighton, Mass.) glove side to regain the lead.

The Owls used a three-goal second period to pull away from the Rams, netting all three markers in a span of four minutes of game action. The first goal came from Jesper Seeberg (Lake Worth, Fla.) after constant pressure from the Owls forced another Framingham turnover in their own zone. An initial shot from Miraldo was saved with the rebound kicking to the left side of the net where Seeberg managed to backhand a tight angled shot past Kilgallen to double the Westfield lead.

Pichette displayed tremendous two-way skill to pot the Owls fourth goal of the night, winning a puck battle along the boards in the defensive end where he would skate into the Rams zone before ripping a top-shelf shot into the cage for his fifth goal of the year. 39 seconds later, Daniel Finegan (Chicago, Ill.) connected with Miraldo in the neutral zone where he would race up ice, shielding the nearest Rams defender while also accurately placing a high shot into the net for his second goal and fourth point on the evening.

With Westfield leading 5-1 entering the final period, Brent Scott (Litchfield, Ariz.) gave the Rams life 3:52 into the frame, scoring on an assist from Jeremy McDonald (Lockport, N.Y.) to trim the lead to three goals. The Owls maintained a three-goal advantage into the final five minutes where a Westfield penalty resulted in Framingham's second power play goal of the night as Devante Dixon (Aurora, Colo.) deposited his first of the campaign to make it a 5-3 contest with 3:53 to go in regulation.

Framingham pulled Alex Timmons (Stillwater, Minn.) from the net to gain an extra attacker with 1:45 remaining in search of two goals to tie. Brent followed by scoring his second goal of the period with 1:07 left in the game forcing an Owls timeout.

Westfield closed the final minute of the game without allowing a shot on goal, securing the win as Owls goalkeeper Aiden Winslow (Jacksonville, Fla.) was battered with shots for the duration of the night. Despite the four-goal margin entering the third, Winslow was forced to make 43 saves in the first two periods to allow for the Owls to build a lead. He finished the game with a season-high 58 saves for his third win between the pipes.

Westfield State will remain on the road for their next game against newly admitted MASCAC opponent Rivier University on Saturday at 6:40 P.M.