Westfield MA – The Westfield State Owls play host to the Western Mass Hockey Invitational Tournament at Amelia Park on Friday October 27th and Saturday October 28th.
The Owls open up their season as they host the two day invitational tournament at Amelia Park. The tournament begins on October 27th as the Owls take the ice at 7:35pm against Post University at Amelia Park. Western New England will host Franklin Pierce at 8:00pm on Friday on their home ice at The Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The consolation and championship games will take place at Amelia Park on Saturday October 28th. The time to be determined.
New to the Western Mass. Invitational Tournament, the Post University Eagles faceoff against the Westfield State Owls. The Eagles who finished the year 6-22, look to start their season off with a win against the Owls. Goaltender Drew Blodgett (Lowell, MA) returns for the Eagles looking to improve on his career save percentage of .898 %.
The Owls, who finished 11-14 overall last year look to make it back to the tournament championship but with different results as they fell short to Franklin Pierce last year, 4-3 in overtime.
For the Owls, sophomore Cooper Board (Salem, MA) returns after his impressive freshman year season. Board ended the season with 15 goals, 7 assists and totaled 22 points on the year. Looking to improve on a good freshman start, sophomore Brett Willams (Easton, MA) returns after totaling 6 goals, 2 assists and 8 points on the year. Between the pipes, senior goalie Valtteri Valtonen (Helsinki, Finland) returns. In his 45 games for Westfield State, Valtonen has totaled 2602 minutes in net and has a shot save percentage of .926 %.
The matchup between the Golden Bears and the Ravens is a rematch of last year's start of the season. The Ravens who finished the year 11-20 look to repeat their success against the Bears who finished the year 7-18 overall . Cody Rumsey (York, PA) a senior for the Ravens, returns coming off his 8 goal, 17 assist, and 25 point season. For the Bears, Kyle Knight (Mantua, NJ) , their leading scorer last year with 8 goals returns this year.
Coverage of Westfield State's game can be found at WestfieldStateOwls.com
-- written by Jordan Aguiar, sports information intern