RUTLAND, Vt. – Castleton held Plymouth St. scoreless in the first, but the Panthers pulled away with four goals in the second to hand the Spartans a 4-1 defeat in non-conference play this evening at Spartan Arena. 

The contest was a chippy affair, as it featured 13 different penalties, including a pair that was tacked on after the end of regulation. Castleton was outshot in the contest, 43-36 and stands at 1-9-1 overall with the losing effort. Plymouth St., meanwhile, captured their ninth consecutive win to improve to 10-1 on the year.

Simon Teodorsson scored the lone Castleton goal of the game off feeds from Fabio Kläy and Patrick Thornton, while Brody Wagner and Ryan Mulder produced a combined 39 saves. Matt Volonnino and Ian McGilvrey tallied one goal and one assist apiece, whereas Ludvig Steenberg also recorded two points with a pair of helpers. Evan Morelli captured his second win of the year after producing 35 saves with a .972 save percentage.

Following a scoreless initial frame, the Panthers wasted little time to strike in the second, as Volonnino cleaned up his own rebound in the crease just 1:40 into the period to put the away side ahead, 1-0. Erik Ström followed that up less than three minutes later by finishing a wrister through traffic before Dan Dupell's goal at the 6:41 mark placed Plymouth St. in front, 3-0. 

The Panthers capped off their scoring with their fourth strike in a span of just 6:27 to extend the advantage to four. Chris Zuccaro delivered a pass through traffic to McGilvrey at the far post, and the junior forward knocked it home, giving the visitors a four-goal lead heading into the third.

Castleton had a great scoring chance early in the final frame on a power play opportunity. After Morelli knocked aside multiples shots on-target, it seemed that the Spartans had broke through the defense with their first score of the game, but Trevor Hanna's goal was disallowed and the score remained 4-0. 

Just over three minutes later, the Spartans found the back of the net again, but this time it counted, as Teodorsson notched his first score of the season and second of his career to cut the Castleton deficit back to three. On a power play opportunity, Kläy drifted a pass into the crease, and Teodorsson, despite falling to the ice, was able to slip the puck underneath the goalie's pads to bring the game to its final score, 4-1.  

The Spartans are off the next two weeks due to the holiday season and will return to action just after the New Year with the Oswego St. Tournament. The squad kicks off tournament play against the hosting Lakers on Jan. 2 at 7 pm. The consolation contest will take place the next day at 1 pm, with the championship game following at 4 pm.