Freitag, Economos lead Panthers to fifth straight win

            FITCHBURG, Mass. – Senior Mike Freitag (Westmont, Ill.) and sophomore Mike Economos (Crystal Lake, Ill.) each collected a pair of goals Saturday evening to lift the Plymouth State University men's ice hockey team to a 6-2 victory over Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action at the Wallace Civic Center.

            The Panthers posted their fifth straight win to improve to 11-7-3 overall and maintained a solid hold on first place in the MASCAC with an 11-2-1 mark. The Falcons lost their second straight and fell to 8-10-2 overall and 6-6-1 in conference play.

            Plymouth State grabbed the lead just 1:15 into the opening period of play as Economos collected a feed from classmate Tommy Dowell (Olathe, Kan.) and wristed a shot into the upper right corner of the net for his 10th marker of the season. The Panther doubled their margin at the 17:48 mark when junior Andrew Wigg (Lantz, N.S.) buried a shot inside the far post for his team-leading 15th tally on the year as Freitag assisted on the play.

            Fitchburg State's best scoring opportunity of the period occurred one minute later as senior Sean Loebs's shot caught the near post and deflected away from the goal to keep the score at 2-0 after 20 minutes of play.

            In the middle frame, the visitors upped its lead at the 6:10 mark when Economos settled a loose puck off his own rebound and fired a shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the contest.

            The Falcons broke their scoring silence (3-1) midway through the period as sophomore Cameron Snyder connected on his team-best 13th marker of the season. Junior Max Lorenzen and senior Craig Halpin assisted on the play.

            The Green and Gold cut the deficit to one two minutes later when junior Stephen Carlette received a pair of feeds from juniors Ryan Connolly and John Celli and slipped the puck into the right side of the net for his fourth score of the season to make the score 3-2.

            The Panthers responded with the man advantage as senior Chad Barthelmess (Norristown, Pa.) blasted a shot into the back of the net at the 14:11 mark for his seventh goal of the year with an assist from classmate Zach Sarig (Reading, Pa.) for the 4-2 lead going into the final period of play.

            Plymouth State put the game out of reach at the 8:22 mark of the third period when Frieitag took a pass from sophomore Erik Strom (Gothenburg, Sweden) and fired a shot into the left side of the net before Freitag added an empty netter with seven seconds remaining in the contest, resulting in the 6-2 final.

            Plymouth State held a 52-31 advantage in shots, while the Falcons finished 0-for-8 on the power play. In net, senior Dan Finn stopped 46 shots for Fitchburg State, while junior Gordon Ceasar (Oak Park, Calif.) made 29 saves for the Panthers.

            Fitchburg State returns to action on Thursday as it visits the Rams of Framingham State University at 7:30 p.m. Plymouth State will host the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on Thursday for a 6 p.m. contest. 

 (Courtesy of Fitchburg State Sports Information)

-- 30 --