After a decade-plus of domination in the MASCAC, the Plymouth State Panthers finally moved on to the LEC, where the competition floor and ceiling would be much higher. At the onset of the season, on the D3 Bros Podcast, we talked about how PSU could have a great year, but they would be slightly disadvantaged by NEHC competition who were adjusted to playing perennial national tournament contenders like Hobart, Salve Regina, Norwich, Babson, and Skidmore. Ultimately, I don’t think we were wrong, but the Panthers gave their faithful the most compelling season in recent memory. Their skater group, and I’ll break this down at the end of the article, was legitimately elite with scoring efficiencies comparable to NPI Top-10 programs. Consistency, on the scoreboard, was the only thing that alluded the Panthers throughout the season.

In what is now tradition, Plymouth started their season in Holderness against the nationally ranked University of New England. The season got off to a perfect start as Kim Hilmersson and Will Redick got the Panthers out to a 2-0 just past the fifth minute of the first period. Unfortunately, UNE’s offense figured itself out in the second period, flipping the game on its head to take a 4-2 lead into the second intermission. In the third period, Brandon Shantz had gotten the hook for Connor Stobel, but it didn’t stop the Nor’Easters from bringing the final score to 6-3. The Panthers got no respite from their jarring defeat as they immediately turned their attention to a long bus ride out to Plattsburgh State. They threw 34 shots at Brady Spry, but the early season Panthers’ chemistry wasn’t cooking quite yet, and the home team with fresher legs collected a 4-0 victory.

The challenging start against national tournament caliber teams continued for Plymouth State for their first intraconference visit to the Norwich Cadets at Kreitzberg Arena. For the third consecutive game, the Panthers surrendered at least three consecutive goals within the first two frames, causing them to chase the game. Redick brought the game within two by the end of the second, and the skaters threw 42 pucks at Sam Molu, but the Cadets walked away with a 5-2 win. Unbothered, the Panthers brought their same attack home in their first contest against Castleton, and Tucker Shedd got PSU up a goal early. Both teams would trade barbs in the first two frames to carry a 2-2 tie into the third period. Brendan Doyle broke the draw past the sixth minute, while Redick added insurance to collect Plymouth’s first win of the season 4-2.

Finally, the Panthers were hosting a familiar foe in former MASCAC rival UMass Dartmouth. PSU found their groove, scoring five straight to open the game, and cruising to a 7-1 win. Étienne Tremblay-Mathieu had 4 points in this game while Severi Sulonen, David Matousek, Redick, Doyle, Rider McCallum, and Matt Hale had multi-point nights. PSU rallied with this momentum into their game against UMass Boston. Despite getting down 1-0 early, Tucker Shedd found the equalizer. Jazz Krivtsov gave the Beacons a lead in the third, but Hilmersson would score past the tenth minute, and again with fifteen seconds left, to secure the Panthers’ first winning streak of the season.

The winning ways continued as PSU hosted their cross-state rivals, Keene State. Both teams went back-and-forth on the scoresheet in the first period, with Payton Schaly and Patrick O’Connell finding the back of the net for the Panthers. In the final two frames, Hale would score twice, including the game winner, while Tremblay-Mathieu also added a goal. The next day, they hosted the first year LEC program, Western Connecticut. Tremblay-Mathieu stayed white hot with a hat trick and four points, while Redick, Brendan Doyle, McCallum, and Shedd all recorded multi-point games en route to a 7-2 victory. 

After winning five straight, PSU faced Trinity (CT) for the second consecutive season. A brutal start from Shantz (5GA on 22 shots) had the Panthers behind 5-0 after two, and after the goalie change, the game ended at a 6-1 loss.

To finish out the calendar year, the Panthers had two games against old MASCAC foes. Salem State struck first at the end of the first period, but that would be the only time they experienced anything other than misery for the rest of the game. Seven different Panthers tallied multiple points on the way to an 8-1 victory. The following Wednesday, the mettle of the Panthers’ more difficult schedule, and the team as a whole would be put to the test against Anna Maria. Over the past several seasons, the Amcats had been thorn in PSU’s side as both an independent and a conference foe. Less than four minutes into the game, Hilmersson demonstrated that the gap between these two teams had widened. Nine Panthers recorded a multi-point night on the way to a 9-1 beatdown to send them into the long winter break.

Plymouth State exited the break with a true test as they hosted then-5th ranked Hamilton College. The Panthers ate a tough start as Hamilton scored three goals in the opening thirteen minutes. Schaly answered before the end of the period, but Hamilton dumped another four into the net to start the second period, putting the game out of reach. With only a night to recalibrate before a match against the always competitive Stevenson, a strong start was a necessity for Plymouth. Will Pray, Luca Rea, and Redick delivered the Panthers a much-needed three goal lead in the second period. Stevenson attempted to battle back, but Plymouth did enough to keep the game out of reach, securing a 5-3 victory.

Returning to LEC play, the Panthers faced off against 7th ranked Babson in Wellesley, MA. After a scoreless first, the Beavers broke through with two second period goals. Schaly answered before the midway point in the third, but Babson added two more to secure a 4-1 victory. The Panthers then faced Southern Maine. PSU was sharper in the first period as Nick Vinson and Schaly gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead, but a difficult second period had them chasing the game in the third. Tremblay-Mathieu struck the equalizer, but USM scored two quick goals in the tenth and eleventh minute, and Plymouth was never able to recover, falling 5-4.

The next weekend, the Panthers visited New England College in Henniker, NH. Schaly scored in the eighth minute, setting the Panthers up for success that never came. Shantz would allow 5 goals on 21 shots in the last two frames, leaving Plymouth with a puzzling 5-1 loss in a game where they had seven power plays. In their rematch against Castleton, the Panthers found themselves in yet another back-and-forth tilt. Castleton had the only goal in the first, but efforts from Schaly and Matousek propelled them to a tie to end the second. Shedd and Redick extended their lead early in the third, but Castleton quickly tied the game at 4. Less than two minutes into the overtime period, Tremblay-Mathieu called game.

Norwich’s visit to Holderness went better for the Panthers than their visit to Northfield. As had become the trend for PSU, this was a tightly contested back-and-forth game. Pray, Hale, and Redick recorded goals in the 3-3 draw. Molu was tremendous again for the Cadets in this game, stopping 39 of 42 from the Panthers’ attack. The Cadets did win in the shootout.

In their visit to Danbury, PSU’s rematch with Western Connecticut was closer than they probably would have liked. West Conn struck fifty seconds into the game, forcing the Panthers to lock-in on a foe they demolished by five goals in 2025. Schaly and Redick answered quickly, but Scott McNulty tied the game again for West Conn, all of the scoring within the first ten minutes of the opening frame. Shedd got the Panthers out in front in the second, before Redick added a critical insurance goal early in the third. West Conn’s Marshall Curri scored late, but the Panthers collected the regulation win 4-3. PSU had another uncomfortable experience in their rematch with Keene State. O’Connell struck within the first two minutes for the Panthers, and Schaly extended their lead to two early in the second. Both teams traded goals the rest of the way as Plymouth’s lead ebbed and flowed between 1-goal and 2, until the final score settled on 4-3.

The rematch with UMass Boston was an exciting game, but it was a disaster. Two quick goals from the Beacons had Plymouth in a familiar position, and O’Connell responded immediately to halve the lead. The hope was temporary as UMass Boston added two more quick strikes, before O’Connell again stopped the bleeding.Pray and Doyle scored two rapid goals in the sixth minute in the second period to reset the game at four goals apiece, but that was short lived as the Beacons quickly extended their lead back to two. Byron Hartley brought the score to 6-5, with the intent of bringing PSU into the second intermission down by one, but two more strikes from the Beacons extended the score to 8-5 before the buzzer. Neither team scored in the third. Plymouth outshot UMass Boston 46 to 38 in this game.

Eager to shake off what seemed like rock bottom, Plymouth ventured to New Bedford, where they made easier work of UMass Dartmouth. Redick and Hale got the Panthers out to a 2-0 lead, but to our EIC’s joy (he tracks these blown leads specifically across all leagues), Tyler Stewart dragged the Corsairs back into a 2-2 tie. Redick scored to get the lead back, and the Panthers never looked back, collecting a 6-3 victory. In their rematch with NEC, they surrendered the first goal, but answers from Shedd and Redick gave Plymouth a lead that they would not surrender en route to securing a 4-2 victory.

In their second match against USM, the Panthers once again surrendered a two goal lead, following two quick strikes by Matousek and Hilmersson. However, regaining their composure, they scored four unanswered to close out a 6-2 victory. Notably, Hilmersson recorded 2 goals and 5 points in this win for one of the most dominant performances of the season. In their final regular season showdown of the season with Babson, Hilmersson struck first, early in the second period. Unfortunately, this was the only goal the Panthers scored. Jimmy Fallon answered in the second, before two other Beavers struck the score sheet to extend their lead to 3-1, a score that would not change before the final buzzer. This loss secured Plymouth a home playoff game in the LEC Quarterfinal against Castleton.

Plymouth’s veterans were likely motivated to shake off the frustrating memory of their last playoff game, and a player who wasn’t available in that unbelievable upset loss, Will Redick, opened the scoring this time around. Cashing in on that momentum, O’Connell quickly extended the lead to two. Early in the second, Castleton’s Logan Dapprich halved the lead. Luca Rea, a player who tried like Hell to find an equalizer in last year’s postseason defeat, extended the Panthers’ lead back to two before the end of the frame. Hale extended the lead once again early in the third, and Hilmersson put the game to bed when he extended the score to 5-1 inside of four minutes remaining. The Spartans scored in garbage time to lock-in a final score of 5-2.

A third match with Babson, in Wellesley once again, awaited the Panthers in the semi-final. The Panthers survived being outshot 13-7 in the opening frame as Babson’s high-flying offense bore down. Early in the second, Fallon broke through for the Beavers, but the Plymouth defense continued to hold as their offense closed the shooting gap to 13-10. The effort was there, but Babson extended the lead to two less than two minutes into the third. The Panthers threw everything they could at Nate Mueller in the third, outshooting the Beavers 13-9, but they couldn’t break through, dropping the game 4-0.

After this loss, I continued my coverage of the LEC, compiled notes from revisiting PSU games, built a few analytics models, and collected my thoughts of how to tell the story above, and what to take away from it for Plymouth State Men’s Hockey heading into 2026-2027. As opposed to some other articles where the negatives were plentiful and unavoidable, Plymouth State did enough right to talk more about the positive and the optimism for a program who is not constantly playing meaningful hockey games.

Looking at our production model for the year, Plymouth had 6 Superstar level producers and 2 Star level producers, meaning that one-third of their starting line-up were in or above the 90th percentile of all players in the nation. Norwich had more total Star+ players with 10, but Plymouth’s 6 Superstars was the most in the conference by a significant margin. Despite losing some Titans in their skater group, Tremblay-Mathieu, Hilmersson, Hale, Shedd, and Sulonen should be returning for the 2026-2027 campaign, which is an incredible foundation of two star forwards and four three superstar defensemen. 

I’m not going to dwell on the goaltending too much, because I don’t want to sit here and sewer them. Shantz and Strobel both performed poorly in our GSAA model. Some of this is due to the run-and-gun offense, and some of it wasn’t. Shantz has moved onto the FPHL with Binghampton, and I genuinely hope to see him climb up to the Coast some day. Strobel will likely be back for his senior season. With the forbidden door that welcomed Tremblay-Mathieu to Holderness open, Coach Russell needs to find a goalie who can duel with Molu and Mueller caliber goalies to turn this team into a national championship (not just the tournament) level team.

Before I wrap this up, I need to take a paragraph to recognize greatness that won’t be playing in Holderness next season. As someone who is married to a Plymouth State Alumnus, I’ve heard enough stories about the 2010’s dynasty-era for the Panthers, and Will Redick and Rider McCallum are two of the best to ever wear that Plymouth green, and comfortably the two best players I have watched in person since launching the Black Stitch Hockey brand in 2023. At the time of writing, Redick’s next career move hasn’t been made public, but I look forward to following McCallum’s career with the Greensboro Gargoyles of the ECHL.