WESTFIELD, Mass.- The Westfield State University men's ice hockey team enters the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference quarterfinals as the fifth seed in the tournament. They will face off against the fourth place Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth on the road on Saturday, February 26, with puck drop slated for 5:00 P.M. at Dartmouth's Hetland Arena.
The Owls finished the regular season with an overall record of 12-11-2, and a 7-9-2 mark in conference competition, landing them as the fifth seed in the MASCAC tournament. UMass Dartmouth finished regular season play with a 9-13-2 record overall (6-10-2 MASCAC), edging the Owls by a single point (17 points to the Owls 16) in the conference standings to claim home ice and the fourth seed.
Westfield is 0-2-1 in their season series against the Corsairs. There last matchup ended in a 5-1 defeat on Saturday, February 19.
Despite dropping their last two, the Owls won four of seven games to end the year, including an exclamation point victory over the top seeded Plymouth State Panthers.
Several Owls' playmakers will be heavily leaned on in this do-or-die contest such as the team's point leader for the season, senior forward Paul Frys (Portland, Ore.), who has logged eight goals and eleven assists for a total of nineteen points. Joseph Carbone (Marshfield, Mass.) has been scorching hot down the stretch, notching five goals and three assists in the Owls' last seven games of the regular season.
Senior forwards Jake Ratcliffe (Auckland, New Zealand) and Chuck Costello (Philadelphia, Pa.) have created the most opportunities on the offensive end for the Owls this season, launching a combined 185 (93, 92) pucks on net throughout the year. They will be two key pieces in setting the tone of Westfield's offensive push.
Another deciding factor for Westfield will be the play of their 6'4" goaltender Valtteri Valtonen (Helsinki, Finland). The Finnish native has had a very strong season between the pipes with a 92.2 percent save percentage against MASCAC opponents.
The Corsairs will look to run their offense through graduate student Dillon Radin (Long Beach, N.Y.) who recently received MASCAC honors for player of the week and leads the MASCAC in points (36) and assists (25) while also leading their squad with 11 goals over the course of 24 games.
The Corsairs split the goaltending duties during the regular season. Junior Daniel Davidson (Surrey, B.C.) has started in 11 games this season, owning a 3.14 goals against average and an 89.6 save percentage. Parker Butler (Summit, N.J.) has started in ten games for UMass Dartmouth, posting a 3.55 goals against and an 89.1 save percentage.
The winner of tomorrow's contest will advance to a MASCAC semifinals game which will be played on Tuesday, March 1, with the opponent and time to be determined.
- Written by Evan Levrault, Sports Information Intern