Established in 2018, the men’s ice hockey team at Anna Maria College has been improving yearly under head Coach Dave McCauley. While the AMCATS finished the regular season last year 10-15-2 (6-7-2 in the conference), this year the team turned the corner.

Anna Maria (20-5-2; 12-1-1 in the conference) went undefeated (12-0-2) on home ice this year and beat Westfield State University in the conference finals 3-0 to claim the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) title in just their second year in the conference. The 20 wins thus far have set the record for the program.

“The support has been great, both from the student population and also from the administration,” McCauley said. “We couldn’t do it without both and really would like to thank them as being our biggest fans.”

In the conference championship Anna Maria's Dylan McElhinny got the game’s first goal and eventual game winner early in the second period when he intercepted a pass from the Westfield goalie and put the puck virtually into an empty net. With a mere 10 seconds remaining in the period Hayden Rynard (from Pearce Baker and Nicholas Frederick) would increase the lead to go into the locker room up 2-0.

Westfield would out shoot Anna Maria 19-10 in the final stanza, but goalie and game MVP Matt Hennessey would keep the Owls at bay stopping all 48 shots he faced to secure the win. Braedon McKinnon would close out the scoring with an empty net goal.

The AMCATS headed into their first ever appearance in the NCAA Division 3 Men’s Ice Hockey Championship where they took on Wisconsin-Stout (21-5-1) in the first round. Wisconsin-Stout controlled the game outshooting the AMCATS 34-22 and captured the first round win with a 4-1 victory. Anna Maria’s only goal came off the stick of Lucas de la Salle at 7:18 of the second period cutting the deficit to 3-1 at the time.

“I believe it's our team chemistry where it starts with and I think the guys really believe in the systems that we use and also that they believe in themselves,” the Coach said. “It's three seasons, you get the regular season and then you get the playoffs (the second season) and now we're off to the third season. We just got to win four games.

“So at the end of the day, if we continue to stay with what we've been doing, what works, I think we have a really good opportunity to continue to move on.”

In addition to making it to their first ever post-season the Paxton Mass team had four players named to the All-Conference team. Junior goalie Matt Hennessey, who went 17-3-2 posting a 1.83 goals against average and a .945 save percentage between the pipes; senior forward Braedon McKinnon, team best 15 goals and 14 assists for 29 points and senior defenseman Pearce Baker who added 22 points (2 goals and 20 assists) all were named to the first team. Sophomore forward Owen Barrow was a second team recipient finding the back of the net 14 times while adding an additional 12 assists on the season. Barrow’s emergence is looked upon as one of the AMCATS most consistent offensive threats.

Head Coach Dave McCauley was also named the MASCAC Coach of the Year.  W