Cinderella Run For Men's Ice Hockey Ends In MASCAC Final

FITCHBURG, Mass. – The MCLA Men's Ice Hockey team made its first appearance in the MASCAC Playoffs a memorable run, making it all the way to the finals, where they met up with the fourth seeded Fitchburg State Falcons this evening at the Wallace Civic Center. This was the Trailblazers conference finals showing since the 2001-2002 season when MCLA was part of the ECAC-East Conference now known as the New England Hockey Conference. Tonight's game was much more competitive than the 10-1 loss suffered at the hands of Norwich University in 2002.

THE BASICS:

• Date: Saturday, March 8, 2025
• Score: MCLA 1, Fitchburg 3
• Records: MCLA Trailblazers 6-20-2 (MASCAC 4-12-2) | Fitchburg State University Falcons 15-12-1 (MASCAC 8-9-1)

HOW IT WENT DOWN (Courtesy of the Fitchburg State Athletics)

• The Falcons offense found the back of the net three times, something that #1 Plymouth State and #2 Anna Maria were unable to do, due to the play of Trailblazers tender Matthew Gover (Atkinson, NH / East Coast Wizards) in this year's postseason. Hunter Dunn (Douglas, MA) continued his impressive season with a two-goal performance, earning him the MASCAC Championship MVP. His first goal got the scoring going for the Falcons in the 10th minute of the first period. Trenton Skaggs (Cherry Hill, NJ) tipped the puck away from an MCLA player that found Marcus Macchioni (N. Kingstown, RI), who dished to Dunn, who would bring the puck down the ice to fake right and finish left on Gover. 
• Fitchburg would add on a second goal in the second period in the 18th minute on great passing from the Falcons' second line of forwards. This time, it was Dunn and Elowan Orme Lynch (Courbevoie, France) who worked the puck up the ice to find Matteo Orme Lynch (Courbevoie, France) for a quick wrist shot.
• The Falcons would add one more in the 13th minute of the third period. Again, it was the Falcons' second line who have produced so much down the stretch who found each other for the goal. Matteo Orme Lynch found Dunn again in front of the net for a quick deflection for his second goal of the game.
• MCLA would break Max Macchioni's (N. Kingstown, RI) shutout in the 16th minute of the third after Easton Moore (Red Deer, AB / Florida Eels) won a faceoff in the right circle to be scooped up by Cade Herrera, who turned around and fired the puck past Macchioni, concluding the scoring in the contest.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Shots: MCLA 29, Fitchburg 31
• Saves: MCLA 28, Fitchburg 28
• Faceoffs Won: MCLA 33, Fitchburg 39
• Penalty/Minutes: MCLA 1/2:00, Fitchburg 2/7:00
• Power Plays: MCLA 0 for 2, Fitchburg 0 for 0

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