While Plymouth State has a secure handle on first place in the MASCAC standings so far this season, there is a lot of battling amongst familiar opponents for playoff positions including coach Dean Fuller’s Fitchburg State Falcons who currently hold down third place on the leaderboard just two points behind Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Fuller has been a coaching institution at Fitchburg State having taken the reins in 1984 and amassing 599 career wins up until Thursday night’s loss to Framingham State, 5-1, temporarily keeping him for the 600-win milestone. Not one to focus or dwell on personal accolades, Fuller shifts focus quickly to what his Falcons need to do well if they want to play some meaningful hockey late in February and into March.
“I have been here over 40 years,” stated Fuller. “I played here, was an assistant here before taking over as the head coach. I am a big fan of Fitchburg State University and the opportunities the school gives our players. D-III is a great level to coach and I have been privileged to have a lot of very good players come here and have success as a program. The milestone is great, but we like to win and play good hockey especially this time of the season. I told the players that the excitement for me is still there every day and that I really love the recruiting, the coaching and being at the rink watching the players and team grow over the course of the season. We have found some goals from our young guys and have started the second half playing some better hockey. It would be great to get the No. 2 seed and a bye in the MASCAC tournament because after that anything can happen like it did for us back in 2018 when we last won the conference title.”
This year’s edition of the Falcons features a strong and consistent group of goaltenders and defensemen and a young group of forwards that have now figured out the college game and are contributing on the scoreboard consistently at even-strength and on the power play. Last week’s MASCAC Player of the Week, Alexandre Bauvais (6G-3A-9Pts), has started finding the net with more frequency along with fellow first-year players Michael Imala (8G – 4A – 12Pts), Hunter Dunn (3G – 4A – 7Pts), Kristopher Zapata (4G – 1A – 5Pts), and Adam Nedelka (3G – 6A – 9Pts) have seen their hard work rewarded on the scoresheet in the recent two-game win streak where the Falcons scored six goals a game.
“At the beginning of the season, looking at this roster, I didn’t know where the goals were going to come from,” noted Fuller. “We have had some more experienced teams in recent years and just by happenstance lost a lot of our forwards to graduation this past year, so it is a very new group upfront for us. We have terrific goaltending with Max [Macchioni] and Frederick [Soderberg] along with a solid six players on the blue line. We thought we would be competitive if we could get some scoring and now, we are starting to see it happen more frequently at even-strength and the power play has really taken off in recent games which helps a lot. Alexandre is a good example of a player who continues to improve his game – he has great vision on the ice and a terrific shot that now has started going in with a little more frequency. We have all conference games left on the schedule for the remainder of the regular season, so these goals and wins are very important for us finishing strong and setting ourselves up for the playoffs next month.”
The 600th win will certainly be a big milestone for Coach Fuller, but the long-time coach is not dwelling on the moment nor focusing his Falcons on the milestone event.
“It will be another win, a nice win, a big win, but it’s just another win and we certainly want to string a few more of those together this season if we are going to compete for a conference championship.”
Fitchburg State will look to start a new streak with an important win for their coach on Saturday on the road against the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
