Owls Crush Raiders on Senior Night, 6-0

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Cannon Bonifay (Fort Worth, Texas) tallied bookend goals and Aiden Winslow (Jacksonville, Fla.) made 25 saves in a shutout effort as Westfield State cruised past Rivier University, 6-0 on senior night in a MASCAC contest from Amelia Park Arena in Westfield, Mass. on Saturday evening.

The Owls pick up their 15^th win of the season, serving as the most wins in a single season since the program was re-established to varsity and NCAA Division III status in 2008. Westfield also improves to 8-3-1 in the conference standings and maintain their third-place position in the league ranks. The Raiders fall to 2-20-1 overall and 2-10 in the MASCAC.

A three-goal first period staked the Owls to an early cushion. Bonifay got the scoring started less than four minutes into the game, gathering the puck in the defensive zone before diagonally skating into the Rivier end where he would fire a wrist shot that snuck through the five-hole of Mason Meyer (Lakeville, Minn.) for a 1-0 lead.

Over the midway point of the first, Emile Tremblay (Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec) poked the puck back to Jackson Gruber (Toronto, Ontario) in the neutral zone where he skated into the offensive end and crossed a pass through the slot to Brett Williams (Easton, Mass.) who one-timed home the goal to double the lead.

Later in the first, an aggressive Owls forecheck kept the puck in the attacking zone for an extended period of time with a point-to-point swing of the puck led to a shot towards the frame which was tipped by Damon Warren (South Glen Falls, N.Y.), off the pad of Meyer, and towards the far side of the net where Nicolas Coppola (Glendale, Ariz.) was able to tap in the Owls third marker of the period, taking a 3-0 lead into the intermission.

Westfield extended the lead in the second period with Louis Ouellet (Baie-Comeau, Quebec) burying the Owls fourth goal of the night after a threaded pass through the offensive zone from Emile Pichette (Saint-Eustache, Quebec). A major penalty was assessed to the Raiders after the goal, allowing Kelly Coldwater (St. Louis, Miss.) to rip home a power play goal after ringing his previous shot off the post.

The Owls added another goal on the man advantage in the third period to complete the scoring on the night with Bonifay registering his ninth goal of the campaign with Ouellet and Pichette the beneficiaries to helping the goal. Pichette notched three assists on the evening.

Winslow was not consistently tested throughout the night but made several timely saves early as he stopped consecutive point blank chances right after the Owls took a 2-0 lead. He finished with 25 saves for his 12^th win and second shutout of the season.

Westfield held a 35-25 shots advantage with Meyers and Matt Dore splitting time in net. Meyers made nine saves and Dore stopped 20 of 22 shots for Rivier. Both teams racked up penalty minutes over the final two periods with Rivier logging 12 infractions while the Owls picked up 10 infractions with a total of 95 penalty minutes between the two sides.

Prior to the start of the game, Westfield State honored its nine senior athletes: Julian Boisclair, Colin Roe, Thomas Reilly, Daniel Finegan, Cooper Board, Brett Williams, Nicolas Coppola, William Chausse, and Raphael Seguin.

Westfield State will be back in action for their final home game of the regular season as the Owls host Salem State in a conference game on Thursday at 7:35 P.M. from Amelia Park Arena in Westfield, Mass. Rivier is at Framingham for their next game on Thursday night at 7:40 P.M.