Board's OT Winner Sends Owls To MASCAC Championship Game !

FITCHBURG, Mass. -- Westfield State senior captain Cooper Board buried a breakaway shot 4:13 into overtime to lift Westfield State to a 4-3 win over Fitchburg State in the MASCAC semifinals and a berth in the conference championship game next Saturday.

[Editor's Note - Westfield will face #1 seed Anna Maria in the 2026 MASCAC Championship Game on Saturday, March 7 at the Horgan Ice Arena in Auburn, Mass.  Face off time is 6:40 p.m. Anna Maria defeated MCLA 3-2 in OT in the other semifinal game this evening.]

Board poked the puck free in his defensive end won the footrace down the left wing to the puck as it squirted into the Falcons zone, and fired a shot five-hole for the game-winner.

"That was unbelievable," said Westfield State head coach Bob Miele, he had hit the post late in the third, had a shot at the empty net, and then he beats a good skater to the puck, and goes five-hole and it's probably the biggest goal in our history yet.  There was probably a little bit of desperation but it was a perfect shot and he got good wood on the shot."

The goal capped an afternoon of resiliency for the Owls, who skated off 10 penalties in the game, and answered in the extra frame after Fitchburg scored a game tying goal with 8.4 seconds left in regulation time.

"Going into the overtime we talked about how it would be all the sweeter to win, and that we had to continue to play our game."

Westfield got yeoman's work in goal from sophomore Aiden Winslow, who made 41 saves in the game, including one in overtime as the Owls withstood a power play in the first three minutes of the extra session.

"Winslow was great for us last game (a shutout of Worcester) and he had some huge saves tonight, including in the overtime.  He has really stepped it up late in the season in this run that we are on, and we have four senior defensemen, and the forwards are back checking and working both ways."

Westfield improves to 18-7-2 on the season, and advances to the MASCAC Championship game for the first time since the league began in the 2009-10 season.  The Owls 18 wins are the most since Westfield brought hockey back to varsity status in the 2008-9 academic year.

"Playing for a championship has been one of our goals, we've got something special with this team and we're playing well at the right time," said Miele.  "We're kind of ecstatic right now, but there is still one more game, and we've gotta finish.  But it's well deserved and the guys have worked hard for it."

Fitchburg's season comes to an end at 17-9.  Macchioni finished with 26 saves for the Falcons.

The game was a mild upset in the tournament seedings, where the Owls were the number three seed and Fitchburg was number two by virtue of a tiebreaker.

The first period ended 0-0.  Westfield had the ice tilted their way for the first five mibutes, but the Falcons settled in and outshot the Owls 12-7 in the frame.   Westfield got solid play in goal from Winslow as Westfield skated off the first power play of the game, and stopped a blast from Filimonov on the breakaway with six minutes left in the period.

In the second period, Westfield came out with renewed energy and grabbed a 2-0 led in the first three minutes.

Julian Boisclair got the Owl on the board first after Cannon Bonifay attempted to wrap one around,  but sent the puck through the crease to Boisclair on the left side at back post  for the goal with 19:00 left in period.

Less than two minutes later, Emile Tremblay picked yp a loose puck near the blue line and flicked a shot past Fitchburg goaltender Max Macchioni with 17:11  left in the period for a 2-0 lead.

From there, the game became extremely physical, and penalties piled up on both sides.

The Falcons got their first goal on the 5-on-3 power play, with Aleksei Filimonov blasting a one timer from the bottom of the right circle to trim the lead to 2-1 with 8:51 left in the third.

Westfield opened the third period with more than a minute of power play time carrying over from the second, but the Owls couldn't muster a goal on the man advantage time.   Just after the penalty ended Nik Coppola capitalized on a bouncing puck in front of the goal after Danny Finegan's shot from the point was saved, and with Maccioni off his line Coppola found the back of the net for a 3-1 lead just 1:34 into the third.

Fitchburg trimmed the lead to 3-2 when Nicklas Milhorn stuffed in the rebound of a shot from the point with 1236 left, the first even-strength goal the Owls had given up in 308 minutes of play.

The game took on a frenetic tone from there.  Milhorn was sent to the box for a five minute major for boarding, but Westfield was whistled for two different penalties within the five minutes to virtually eliminate the advantage.

Fitchburg pulled Macchioni with 2:11 left to play, and finally netted the game-tying goal with 8.4 seconds left in regulation time, with Devin Niles tipping in Christian Halbig's shot from the right point after a face off in the Owls' defensive end.

Westfield was whistled for their 10^th penalty of the game just 1:50 into the extra session for taking down a Falcons' skater while trying to break up the play on a 2-on-1 breakaway.

But the Owls skated the penalty off to set up Board's heroics.

"Our penalty kill has gotten better and better as the year has gone on," said Miele, "We changed a few things up, but that was a huge kill in OT. 

"Our phones have been blowing up with messages from alumni," said Miele.  "This is big for our program, it's been a long time coming , and we've gotta thank the alumni who helped get us here, both in bringing the program back, and all the players we've had in the program that helped us to build to where we are now, and we want to win it for them as well."