BUZZARDS BAY, Mass -- The Buccaneers hosted 9-3 Plymouth State on Friday evening in a conference match-up that was nothing but entertaining. Though the Bucs trailed 8-4 at the half, they outscored the Panthers 8-5 in the second half falling just short of their LEC competition losing 13-12.

The Basics

Final: Panthers 13, Buccaneers 12

Records: Plymouth (10-3, 3-2)

               Maritime (4-6, 1-3)

Between The Pipes

Plymouth: Owen McNichols (W 9-3): 7 sv | 11 ga | 18 sh | 58:10 min

                  Jessy Hirwa: 3 sv | 1 ga | 4 sh | 1:50 min

Maritime: John Aidonidis (L, 3-4): 8 sv | 13 ga | 21 sh | 60 min

On The Field

Maritime

• Mitchell Maida scored a team-high five goals for the Bucs.
• Daniel Kane, Cooper Barrett, and Ryan McDonough each scored twice.
• Leo Allgaier added a goal in the loss.
• McDonough assisted on four Bucs goals. Maida and faceoff man Brian Rosher each recorded one helper.
• Rosher tied for the game-high in ground balls with eight. He also won 15-of-26 faceoffs on the night.
• Allgaier and Patrick Doyle led the Buccaneers defensively with two caused turnovers each.
• In total, the Buccaneers picked up 34 ground balls, were successful on 17-of-22 clears, won 15-of-27 faceoffs, and took 50 total shots.

Plymouth

• Crosby Fay led all players in the game with seven goals. 
• Matt Miner scored twice and Nolan Burke, Jake Dolcimascolo, Mike Fleury, and Karl Flinter each scored once.
• Nick Drew had four assists in the win. Miner added two helpers and Burke, Ryan Jones, Dolcimascolo, Brady Hunt, and Fleury each had one assist.
• Leif Charbonneau tied for the game-high i nground balls with eight. He also won 12-of-27 faceoffs.
• Defensively, Joey Loeber and Flinter each had two caused turnovers.
• In total, Plymouth picked up 28 ground balls, were successful on 18-of-23 clears, won 12-of-27 faceoffs and took 39 total shots.

How It Happened

Maritime got on the board first seven seconds into the game on an Allgaier goal right off the opening faceoff. Plymouth scored the next two goals, the first at 14:12 from Fay and the second nearly seven minutes later from Fleury to take a 2-1 lead. Maritime scored the next goal at 6:39 on a shot from McDonough to tie the game at 2-2. Plymouth then went on a 3-0 run to end the first quarter with goals from Fay at 5:59, Miner on a power play at 5:34, and Dolcimascolo at 14 seconds to take a 5-2 lead into the second.

The Panthers scored the first goal of the second on Fay's third of the game at 11:47 to make it four unanswered and extended their lead to 6-2. Maritime scored the next two goals, both from Maida, at 10:19 and 7:18 to get back within two goals, 6-4, with just over seven minutes left in the first half. Plymouth scored at 2:12 and 1:00, both from Fay, to take an 8-4 lead into the halftime break.

Down four goals, the Bucs scored the first two goals of the third to pull within two. Barrett scored both at 11:34 and again at 10:40 on a power play to make the score 8-6 Panthers. Fay added another goal for the Panthers at 9:50 which Maida matched 24 seconds later on a power play to make it 9-7 with 9:26 left in the third. McDonough scored for Maritime at 5:26 to get within one goal, 9-8. Plymouth, once again, closed out the quarter with two goals at 4:43 and again with 27 seconds left from Miner and Fay respectively. They took their three-goal, 11-8 advantage into the fourth quarter.

Maritime scored first again in the fourth just 15 seconds in on another power play goal, this time from Kane to make the score 11-9. Plymouth scored two at 8:10 and 6:32 to pull out to a four goal lead, 13-9. The Bucs attempted to mount a comeback scoring the final three goals of the quarter, the first at 3:59 from Maida, the second at 3:54 from Maida and then at 1:33 from Kane on another Power Play. This power play saw the Panthers starting goalie go to the box for an illegal hit to the head and the backup goalie, Hirwa, made three outstanding saves on Buccaneer shots to hold the lead and secure the 13-12 win over the Bucs in conference play.

WWhat's Next

Maritime is on the road for their next game on Wednesday, April 19th against Eastern Connecticut in Willimantic at 7pm.