When the D-III season came to an abrupt ending back in 2020 just prior to the start of the NCAA tournament, Plymouth State won the MASCAC title and was set to face Endicott in the first round of the national tournament. That game and the rest of the tournament never happened, and the Panthers aren’t looking back on what could have been. They are clearly focused on what can be for 2022 with a talented roster still looking to play its best hockey.
“It was an immense disappointment not to be able to play in the national tournament in 2020,” said head coach Craig Russell. “We had a great matchup with Endicott scheduled and a team that played ten freshmen regularly that had really evolved from a .500 team at the semester break into a conference champion. We looked at that NCAA experience as a measuring stick for how we had developed our game over the course of the season. It was a fun group of players, but we can’t be looking backwards to what might have been. That is past history. We have kept the momentum going through an abbreviated eight game season in 2020-2021 and now have this really special group that is excited to make their own history this year despite the challenges of the pandemic.”
After a league-wide hiatus to start 2022 due to COVID protocols, MASCAC play has resumed, and the Panthers are battling where they expect to be near the top of the conference standings heading into February and the upcoming MASCAC tournament. After a 4-0 loss at Fitchburg State and a 3-3 tie with Worcester State to open the second half, Plymouth State has rebounded with back-to-back wins over Framingham State and Massachusetts-Dartmouth to jump-start some positive momentum that will see the Panthers playing eight games in the next three weeks to close out the regular season. In the overtime win over the Corsairs last Tuesday, it was the veteran leadership that delivered the victory after a bad bounce tied the game in the final 35 seconds of regulation.
“Like everyone else we have had a lineup in flux since we came back to campus,” noted Russell. “We are thrilled just to be playing as we have gone through periods with only eight forwards available or just one goalie. The manpower has made playing tough, but I really like this team and how they battle to the end. This may be the best group we have had here, and they certainly want to finish the season strong and have a chance to repeat as conference champions and return to the national tournament.”
Leading the Panthers in virtually every way is junior forward Myles Abbate. Abbate who scored the game-winning goal against the Corsairs, leads the team in points and with linemate JR Barone, causes immense challenges to opposing defenses regardless of the on-ice situation.
“Myles and JR together are a big challenge for any opponent,” stated Russell. “The bigger the moment, the bigger the compete level from both of those guys – they are hands-down our hardest working forwards. I’d compare Myles a little bit to Mark Stone from the Vegas Golden Knights. He plays in every situation and while he is not as big as a Mark Stone, he always has his feet moving which makes it very difficult to stay with him or position to take the puck away from him. The duo is a great foundation for their line, and we want to see some other scoring emerge from different players so the pressure isn’t always on them to produce the offense.”
Freshman Jeromey Rancourt has ten goals on the season and Graduate student Peter Laviolette has seven tallies with no other players, besides Abbate and Barone, having more than three goals. Newcomer Anton Jellvik who joined the team for the second half, scored a goal in his first game for the Panthers which has the coaching staff optimistic that more and better is to come.
“We finally had our full roster on the ice last week and back into game mode,” said Russell. “It is a tough time of the season to be starting over in some ways, but this team is determined to have fun and success on the ice as a group. Hopefully the last couple of games are good indication of where our team is trending so we can focus on improving the activity inside the glass instead of everything we have gone through outside of the rink.”
On Tuesday afternoon the Panthers knocked off their closest rivals from Fitchburg State with a 3-0 win that extended their win streak to four games and finds them standing alone atop the MASCAC standings entering the final weeks of the regular season.
