Men’s Hockey Goes the Distance in Season Opener Falling to St. Mike’s in Shootout
Luc Fricchione and Cade Herrera scored for MCLA in non-conference stalemate against St. Michael’s this evening.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The MCLA Men's Ice Hockey team kicked off their 2025-26 season this evening when they welcomed the St. Michael's College Purple Knights to the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink for a non-conference showdown. Luc Fricchione and Cade Herrera provided the Trailblazers with an early two goal lead before St. Michael's reeled them back in to knot the game at 2-2.
THE BASICS:
- Date: Friday, October 31, 2025
- Score: St. Michael's 2, MCLA 2, St. Michael's win shootout 2-0
- Records: St. Michael's College Purple Knights 0-0-1 (NE10 0-0-0) | MCLA Trailblazers 0-0-1 (MASCAC 0-0-0)
HOW IT HAPPENED
- MCLA opened the scoring a bit more than seven minutes into the game when junior defenseman Luc Fricchione (West Springfield, MA / Worcester State) (7:07 of 1st period, assisted by White & Zis) knocked home the rebound of a shot from junior forward Cody White (Orange, CT / East Coast Wizards). Sophomore forward Sam Zis (Boulder, CO / Connecticut Chiefs) was also credited with an assist. The goal and the assists were the first of the season for all three players.
- The Trailblazers' doubled their lead just under five minutes into the second period when junior forward Cade Herrera (Brentwood, CA / Seahawks H.C) (4:47 of 2nd, unassisted) put away the rebound of his own shot.
- The Purple Knights cut the lead in half just before the end of the second frame, scoring a short-handed goal with four seconds left on the clock. The goal was credited to Ty Bloom (19:56 of second, Dresser) with an assist going to Evan Dresser.
- St. Mike's needed less than 100 seconds of the third period to totally eliminate MCLA's lead. Dresser (1:34 of 3rd, Wracker & Leale) was noted as the goal scorer with the assists going to Nick Wraker and Jake Leale.
- MCLA's sophomore goalie Josh Girard (Clifton, ME / Walpole Express) stopped 37 of 39 shots, while the Purple Knights' Cole Manahan withstood 41 of 43 shots. Both backstops will open the season 0-0-1.
- Roman Winicki and Sj Lecommte each scored in the shootout to clinch the game for St. Mike's.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Shots: St. Michael's 39, MCLA 43
- Saves: St. Michael's 41, MCLA 37
- Faceoffs Won: St. Michael's 33, MCLA 38
- Penalty/Minutes: St. Michael's 3/6:00, MCLA 4/10:00
- Power Plays: St. Michael's 0 for 4, MCLA 0 for 3
UP NEXT:
On Saturday, MCLA will be back in action when it concludes their two-game series with St. Michael's at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink. The puck will drop at 5 p.m.
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