#6 Vikings To Play For MASCAC Championship, Defeat #5 Westfield State 4-2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Salem St. (12-12-0) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
|
Westfield St. (13-12-2) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Joe Smith (Holbrook, Mass.) scored two goals, including an empty-netter late to lift #6 Salem State past #5 Westfield State 4-2 in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinal contest on Tuesday at Amelia Park Ice Arena. The Vikings (12-12) advance to the championship game and will face top seed Plymouth State on Saturday at 4:00 PM. Westfield State's season comes to a finish at 13-12-2.
Salem State got the scoring started at 12:29 of the opening stanza when a rebounded shot from Connor Woolley (Poghquag, N.Y.) was finished off by Richard Coyle (Weymouth, Mass.) after a brief scrum in front of the goal. The Vikings would further their lead to two 15 minutes and 58 seconds into the second period, as Woolley slid one past Westfield's Valtteri Valtonen (Helsinki, Finland) for his first goal and second point of the night.
Joseph Carbone (Marshfield, Mass.) would bring the Owls to within one with 13 seconds ticks left on the clock in the second period. Carbone blasted wrister that found top-left twine with Andrew McCormick (Canton, N.Y.) and Chuck Costello (Philadelphia, PA) each recording assists on the score.
Westfield found themselves in a man-down situation eight minutes into the third period which Salem took advantage of as Erik Larsson (Lake Tahoe, Calif.) wheeled into the offensive zone and found Smith across the crease, giving Salem a two-goal lead once again.
The Owls would continue to rally and apply pressure in the offensive zone which paid off 14 minutes and 35 seconds into the final stanza. Senior captain, John-Michael DiGregorio (Montreal, Quebec) found twine after catching a cross-crease pass from Mathieu Jones (Gatineau, Quebec), cutting the Vikings lead in half. Andrew McCormick was also in on the play, tallying his second helper of the game.
The late push from Westfield unfortunately came up short as Smith iced the game on an empty net strike with 12 seconds left in regulation for his second goal of the evening.
Salem's Aaron Mercer (Corner Brook, Newfoundland) finished with 39 saves on 41 attempts. The Owl's goalie Valtteri Valtonen made 35 saves on 38 shots faced. Westfield outshot the Vikings, 41-39.