Morrisville State downs Tufts, 4-2, at Rutland Herald Invitational

Visiting Morrisville State College ice hockey capitalized on 2-of-6 power play opportunities to claim the 4-2 non-conference victory over Tufts University Saturday afternoon at the Spartan Arena in the first round of the Rutland Herald Invitational hosted by Castleton in Rutland, Vermont.



Morrisville State improved to 2-4-1 overall and advances to the championship game tomorrow at 3 p.m. against the winner of the Castleton/Becker match-up being played tonight.



The Mustangs took advantage of a Tufts tripping penalty late in the first period, as Ryan Marcuz (Richmond Hill, ONT) fired the wrist shot from the right circle over the shoulder of Tufts netminder, Scott Barchard, for the first tally of the afternoon with 1:20 remaining in the period. Jamie Nelson (Stratford, ONT) and Alex Tillaart (Ashburn, ONT) recorded the assists on the play.



Patrick Stillar (Burlington, ONT) extended the Morrisville State lead to two, with a scoring wrist shot on the man advantage just 3:51 into the second, as Taylor Vince (Barrie, ONT) and Matthew Beer (Corunna, ONT) were credited with the assists.



Eric Geertz (Penn Yan, NY) posted his first collegiate tally late in the second period to give the Mustangs a 3-0 lead, collecting the rebound off the pads of Barchard and fired it top shelf for the score.



Tufts managed to sneak one past Morrisville State's goaltender, Colin Breen (Waterloo, ONT) 7:50 into the final period, as Kyle Gallegos posted the power play score to cut the Mustang's lead to two.



Gallegos added another to make it a one score game with less than a minute to go, but Stillar added his second of the afternoon, tallying an empty net score to secure the win for the Mustangs.



Breen made 23 stops between the pipes to earn the win for Morrisville State.



Barchard had 22 saves in 58:21 of play as Tufts returns to the ice to face either Castleton or Becker in the consolation round tomorrow afternoon.