WESTFIELD, Mass-. Westfield State junior forward Joseph Carbone (Marshfield Mass.) remained blistering hot as he notched two goals and an assist in the Owls' 4-2 win over the 2nd seed Plymouth State Panthers at Amelia Park Arena in Westfield, Mass. On Tuesday afternoon. He now has five goals spread across four of the Owls' last five games.
Westfield has won in four of their last five games, and the victory bumps the Owls to 12-9-2 overall and 7-7-2 in MASCAC play. Plymouth drops to 15-5-2 and 12-2-2 in the conference. The victory evens the season series at 1-1-1 against the Panthers.
The Owls scored three second period goals to jumpstart the offense and then maintain the lead throughout the game.
The scoring didn't start until the first minute of the second period, when Chuck Costello (Philadelphia, Pa.) buried a pass from Carbone that gave the Owls a 1-0 lead.
Then, at 7:22, on a man advantage, Carbone was able to extend the Owls' lead to two. Justin Collins (Wilmington, Mass.) and Mathieu Jones (Gatineau, Quebec) were credited the assists.
Plymouth would be quick to answer as Jacob Laurin (Stockholm, Sweden) would cut the deficit in half, scoring 1:29 seconds after the Owls goal.
Westfield State would rally just over the halfway mark in the period as senior forward Jason Diamond (Lakeville, Conn.) added his name to the scoring sheet to push the Owls back up to a two-goal lead. Dawson Garcia (Oakville, Ontario) and Jake Ratcliffe (Auckland, New Zealand) recorded assists on the Diamond goal.
In the third period, the Owls were first to crack the scoreboard as Carbone weaved his way through the defense and slipped a puck over the red line, marking his second tally of the night and putting the Owls up 4-1. Graduate student J.R. Barone (West Chester, Pa.) tallied a goal thirty seconds after Carbone's to get the Panthers within two.
Westfield was able to hold the lead late in the third as Plymouth pulled goaltender Kalle Anderson (Taby, Sweden) with under two minutes remaining. The Owls defense came up big, blocking consecutive shots in the final seconds to secure the victory.
Valtteri Valtonen (Helsinki, Finland) was back in net for the Owls and stopped a barrage of shots, making 39 saves on 41 shots that he faced. On Plymouth's side, Anderson saw 23 shots and saved 19 of them.
The Panthers out-shot the Owls 41-23 for the game.
Westfield's three-game home stand will end on Thursday, February 17th, when the Owls face off against the top seeded Fitchburg State Falcons at 7:35pm from Amelia Park. Plymouth State will return home for their final two regular season games starting Thursday against Framingham State at 6:00 P.M.
Recap written by Evan Levrault - Sports Info. intern