2/27/2010 4:46:02 PM
The Salem State Vikings erupted for four first period goals and cruised to a 10-1 win over the Worcester State Lancers in their final MASCAC Conference regular season game on Saturday afternoon.
With the victory Salem State improved to 13-8-4 overall, and 11-3-4 in the conference securing the # 2 seed for the upcoming MASCAC Conference tournament. Worcester State finished the regular season at 5-17-2, and sixth in the MASCAC with a 3-13-2 record. Salem State will host a semi-final game on Thursday, March 4th at 7:00 PM. The opponent will be determined Tuesday evening in the quarterfinal match up that has yet to be determined.
Alex Molnar (Nitra, Slovakia) jumped started the Vikings offense with his first goal of the season just nineteen seconds into the game for a quick 1-0 lead. Salem State never looked back as Dan Rowland (Waltham, MA) and Dan Smolinksy (Plymouth, MA) notched consecutive goals to increase the lead to 3-0 at the 6:01 mark and Nick Lampson (Groton, MA) closed out the scoring for Salem State as the Vikings ended the first period of play with a commanding 4-0 lead. Kevin Hughes (Natick, MA) on an assist from Rowland increased the lead to 5-0 before Worcester State’s Andrew Brady ( Oreland, PA) finally found the back of the net to make the score 5-1 at the end of two.
Rowland and Molnar each added their second goal of the game in the third period as Salem State tacked on five more goals in the 10-1 blowout win. Senior Chris MacInnis (Waltham, MA) added a goal and an assist in his final regular season game to tie for the team-lead in points at 28 with Lampson, who scored his team-best 16th goal of the year. Dereck Crocker (Wakefield, MA) added an unassisted goal to close out the scoring.
Damen Nisula (Gardner, MA) had a three assists for the Vikings while Brett Noll (Sandwich, MA), Mike Genovese ( Hingham, MA), Casey Terreri (Warwick, RI), Smolinsky, and Sam Cannata (Bozeman, MT) each contributed two assists for the Vikings.
Sam Avoine (Ste-Perpetue, Quebec) earned win number seven, making 17 stops while Andrew Evans (Cromwell, CT) took the loss making just five saves in six minutes of action.