Ice Hockey Doubles Up Pilgrims In Non-Conference Action

DeLuca collects first collegiate goal for Green & Gold

Fitchburg, MA - The Fitchburg State ice hockey team registered a 4-2 victory over the Pilgrims of New England College this evening in non-conference action from the Wallace Civic Center.

The Basics

Score: Fitchburg State 4, New England College 2

Records: Fitchburg State (10-5-0, 4-1-0 MASCAC) I New England College (4-11-0, 3-5-0 LEC)

How It Happened

Fitchburg State opened the scoring at the 4:37 mark of the first period as freshman Aleksei Filimonov (Saint Petersburg, Russia) gathered a feed from classmates Devin Niles (Hatfield, MA) and Anthony DeLuca (Andover, MA) and fired a into the left side of the net for his ninth goal of the season for the 1-0 edge.

New England College knotted the score at 1-1 at the 13:24 mark with sophomore Vesse-Wincent Lampen (Espoo, Finland) settling a feed from freshman Jaeseck Lee (Suwon, SK) and depositing a shot inside the near post for his first tally on the season

The Falcons regained the advantage five minutes later with junior Hunter Dunn (Douglas, MA) blasting a shot into the right side of the net for his fourth score of the 2025-26 campaign with assists from Filimonov and Niles for the 2-1 edge.

In the middle frame, the Pilgrims retied the contest (2-2) midway through the frame as freshman Matteo Viglino (Davos Switzerland) received a pass from Lee and found the back of the net for his third goal of the year,

In the third period of play, the Green and Gold regained the lead four minutes into the stanza when DeLuca connected on his first collegiate tally with assists from Niles and Filimonov to make the score 3-2.

Fitchburg State secured the victory with just under two minutes remaining in the contest as junior Kristopher Zapata (Cherry Hill, NJ) fired an empty netter for his second marker on the season with assists from classmate Nicklas Millhorn (Brownstown, MI) and senior Jack Saavedra (Mishawaka, IN), resulting in the 4-2 final

By the Numbers

• Fitchburg State went 1-for-2 with the man advantage
• The Pilgrims held a 42-32 advantage in shots
• Junior Frederick Soderberg (Harrison Township, MI) stopped 40 shots for the Falcons
• Senior Danny Miscavish (Macomb, MI) turned aside 28 shots for the Pilgrims

Up Next

Falcons return to action next Thursday as they host the Rams of Framingham State in MASCAC action, starting at 6:30PM.

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