Owls Advance to Championship

Nashua, NH --- The Westfield State Owls defeated the Bridgewater State Bears 6-5 in a wild game that came down to the last minute. The Owls would get on the board first when Peter Richardson's centering pass deflected off a defender and into the back of the net only 4:11 into the first period. The lead would not last long and Bridgewater would tie the game only 4 minutes later. Bridgewater would take the lead on a Josh Sircar goal with 3:28 remaining in the first period. With 2:22 remaining in the first, Will Keating would find Joey Green on the back door to send the two teams tied at 2 goals a piece heading into the second period.

Bridgewater State would once again take the lead at 12:03 when Craig McKinnon's shot beat Owls netminder Nick Franco. A minute later, the Owls would strike on the power play when Brian Nixon found Brett Salamon alone on the far post to tie the game 3-3.

Midway through the third period, Josh Sircar would score his second goal of the game on the power play to give the Bears a 4-3 lead with 11:52 remaining in the game. The Owls would once again tie the game with an unassisted goal by Senior defenseman Corey Tobin with 3:45 left in the period. Joe Gaughan would give the Bears a 5-4 lead only 34 seconds later when he found a loose puck in a scramble in front of the net and put it into the back of the net. The Bears thought that they had their first 2 goal lead of the game just a few seconds later but the goal was disallowed because of a crease violation and the Owls still had hope with under 3 minutes left in regulation. Captain, Tommy Bruso would tie the game 5-5 with 2:22 remaining with Ryan Leonard picking up the lone assist on the goal. Assistant captain, Corey Tobin, was on the receiving end of a high elbow with 1:32 remaining to put the Owls on the power play. Tommy Bruso would score his second goal of the night with 37 seconds remaining in the game with the man advantage to put the Owls up 6-5. The Owls would hold on to win 6-5 and advance to the championship game.

The Owls will play the winner of Bates and MIT on Sunday at 2:50 pm at Conway Arena in Nashua, NH. This will be the Owls first appearance in the championship game since 2006 when they won the NECHA playoffs. Please check back to see who the Owls will be playing by following the team's twitter account @wsuclub.

Key StatsGoals: Richardson(1) , Green(1), Salamon (1), Tobin (1), Bruso (2)
Assists: Russo(1), Keating (1), Hardy (1), Nixon (1), Laughlin (1), Leonard (2), Green (1)
Win: Franco (1)
Power Play: 2 for 6 (33%)
Penalty Kill: 3 for 4 (75%)