Vikings Draw Corsairs in MASCAC Tournament Opener

Salem, Mass. -- Salem State drew the sixth and final playoff seed for the 2019 MASCAC Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. The Vikings will face third seed UMass Dartmouth in a quarterfinal matchup on Saturday, February 23 at 6:30 PM. 

Salem State (8-16-1, 7-11) is led by their top scorer Billy McGwin, who tallied eight goals during the regular season. UMass Dartmouth (13-10-2) will be looking to return to the MASCAC Championship game after finishing as the tournament runner up in 2018. The Corsairs went 10-6-2 in conference play this year for 22 points. UMD is led by junior forward Steven Leonard whose 14 goals rank him third in the conference.

Fourth seed Worcester State will host fifth seed Fitchburg State at 5:40 p.m. in the other quarterfinal game on Saturday. Mitchell Purdie was Worcester State's leading score with nine goals and 24 assists for 33 points. His point total ranks fifth in the conference. The Lancers landed in the fourth spot in the conference thanks to a 9-7-2 MASCAC season and 20 points.

Reigning MASCAC Tournament Champions Fitchburg State also had 20 points in the standings with an identical 9-7-2 conference record. The Falcons feature two of the league leaders in Sascha Figi and Brian McGrath. Figi leads the MASCAC in goals (23) and points (43), while McGrath is the league's top goaltender with a .940 save percentage and 2.18 goals-against average.

The winners of the two quarterfinal games will advance to the MASCAC Semifinals on Tuesday, February 26 where No. 1 seed Plymouth State and No. 2 seed Westfield State wait. The Worcester/Fitchburg winner will visit the Panthers at 7 p.m., while the UMD/Salem winner heads to Westfield at 7:35.

For the third straight year, Plymouth State will enter the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Men's Ice Hockey Tournament as the No. 1 seed as the Panthers captured the MASCAC Regular-Season Championship once again. 

The Panthers earn the top seed with 26 points in the conference standings after a 12-4-2 conference season. They feature the highest scoring offense in the conference led by Matt Volonnino whose 17 goals rank second in the MASCAC.

Second seed Westfield went 11-6-1 in conference play to earn 23 points. The Owls have gotten strong play in goal this year from Thierry Messervier who sports a 2.64 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage, which ranks second in the conference.   

The two semifinal winners will qualify for the MASCAC Men's Ice Hockey Championship, which takes place on Saturday, March 2 with the higher seed serving as host. The winner of the championship game will earn the conference's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament.

 Despite the tie in the standings, the Lancers were awarded the higher seed based on head-to-head comparison. Worcester State won two of the three meetings against Fitchburg State to win the tiebreaker.