Fitchburg, Mass. – The Fitchburg State University men's ice hockey team notched a 2-1 victory over the Owls of Westfield State University in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action Thursday evening at the Wallace Civic Center.

With the win, Fitchburg State (13-7-3) moves to 10-3-3 in the league, and Westfield State (11-7-5) falls to 9-5-2, putting more distance between themselves and the second-place Falcons.

Fitchburg State opened the scoring midway through the first period. After Westfield's senior goaltender Thierry Messervier (Montreal, Que.) made an initial stop from the point from Falcons' freshman Joshua Miller (Saint Augustine, Fla.), freshman Gene Bouthiette (Enfield, Conn.) collected the loose rebound for his fourth goal of the season.

In the second period Westfield would knot the score at 1-1 when senior Robert Neuwirth (Zlin, Czech Republic) notched a short-handed tally off the feed from sophomore Justin Alves (Woburn, Mass.) at the 13:09 mark of the period. Just three minutes later, freshman Anthony Ceolin (Simsbury, Conn.) scored the eventual game-winner with a one-timer from classmate Adam Kusior (Tecumseh, Ont.) from behind the Owls net.

The teams skated to a scoreless third period, as the netminders were the story. Falcons' Brian McGrath (Worcester, Mass.) made 11 saves to secure the victory.

The Owls held a slight margin (31-29) in shots. McGrath stopped 30 shots en-route to his thirteenth win for the Falcons, while Messervier finished with 27 saves in the setback for the Owls

Up next, Westfield will host the Rams of Framingham State on the Saturday at 5:35 PM. It will be the Owls' senior night as well as the annual "Think Pink" game to support cancer.