Men’s Ice Hockey Pots Eight Goals in Season-Opening Victory

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State University ice hockey used a five-goal first period to fly past Western New England in a high-scoring 8-5 contest in the team's season-opener on the road from Olympia Ice Arena on Friday night.

The Owls had eight different goal scorers in the game and got out to a blazing-hot start to the season, tallying five goals in the opening 20 minutes.

William Chausse (La Prairie, Quebec) got the scoring started 3:41 into the game, connecting for the first Owls goal of the season on assists from Cannon Bonifay (Fort Worth, Texas) and Emile Pichette (Aint-Eustache, Quebec).

Jesper Seeberg (Lake Worth, Fla.) doubled the Owls lead with a power play goal with Pichette credited for another assist along with Raphael Seguin (Saint-Lazare, Quebec).

Westfield continued their scoring onslaught, with Louis Ouellet (Baie-Comeau, Quebec) potting Westfield's third goal just over the midway point of the first period. First-year Liam Krupcyznski (San Marcos, Calif.) earned his first collegiate point of his career, burying the Owls fourth score. Daniel Finegan (Chicago, Ill.) punctuated the period with a fifth goal and second on the man advantage, sending the Owls into the intermission with a five-goal lead.

Western New England made a huge push in the second period, scoring four unanswered goals to pull within one after Stephen Kuznetsov's second power play goal of the period with ten minutes left in the second. Colin Roe (Boston, Mass.) steadied the Owls with under seven left until the intermission, putting the Owls in front 6-4 after two frames.

Xavier Tremblay (Sainte-Adele, Quebec) and Julian Boisclair (Voorhees, N.J.) piled on to the Owls lead in the third period, ultimately putting the game out of reach.

The Owls were outshot 43-37 in the game but were far more precise in finding the twine. Aiden Winslow (Jacksonville, Fla.) made 38 saves on the night for a season-opening win. Over half of the Golden Bears shots on goal came in the middle period, racking up 27 shots in the frame alone. However, the Westfield defense settled in for the final frame, holding WNEU to only five shots on goal.

Westfield State will have a quick turnaround for their next game, visiting UMass Dartmouth tomorrow at 4:30 P.M.