Wilkes Men's Ice Hockey Doubles Up Chatham 8-4
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's ice hockey team used three consecutive goals in the second period to pull away from the Chatham Cougars on Saturday night at the Toyota Sportsplex. The Colonels pick up back-to-back United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) wins to push their conference record to 2-1.
Overall, Wilkes wins for the third time in their last four games to go over the .500 mark at 3-2. Chatham was unable to build off last night's comeback against King's and falls to 1-3, 1-2 UCHC.
Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/) started the scoring for the evening as he put the Colonels on the board just 3:15 into the opening period after being setup by Wade Novak (Oak Ridge, NJ/) and Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/). Unfortunately, the Cougars would answer back just over a minute and a half later to knot the game up at one on the power play.
Chatham would take their only lead of the night at the 12:50 mark of the first period, however Wilkes would answer with two power play goals in just over a minute, at the 15:15 and 16:25 marks, by Dylan Kuipers (Andover, NJ/) and Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/) respectively, to give the Colonels a 3-2 edge.
The Cougars would storm right back to knot the game up just a minute and a half later at the 17:53 mark.
Just as the first period was winding down, Wilkes would score their third power play goal of the period, this time from Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ/), with the helpers coming from Fea and Kuipers, putting the Colonels ahead at the break.
Wilkes would grab control of the game in the second period as they scored three straight goals from Araujo (6:50), Fea (12:52) and Flynn (15:12), the last of which again coming on the power play, to stretch the Colonels lead to 7-3.
Chatham would continue to battle as they put one past the Colonels goaltender with just under two minutes remaining in the period.
The red lights were quiet in the final period as there was plenty of action but no goals until Fea put one in the empty net with just over a minute remaining to capture the hat trick and finish off the Cougars 8-4.
Fea was the star of the game for the Colonels as he added four assists to those three goals for a seven point night. Flynn was right behind him with six points on two goals and four assists.
In his first collegiate start, goaltender Liam Murray (Fort Lauderdale, FL/) made 32 saves on 36 shots to pick up the win.
The Colonels were deadly on the power play as they scored on four of their seven opportunities.
Wilkes heads to crosstown rival King's on Friday, November 16th for a 7:00 p.m. face-off at the Revolution Ice Centre.
