PITTSTON, PA – Brandon Gordon (Sault Ste. Marie, MI/) and the Wilkes University men's ice hockey team earned the program's first-ever shutout in a 3-0 victory at cross-town rival King's College Friday night at the Revolution Ice Centre. The United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) and Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) game marked the first meeting between the two programs.

Wilkes improved its inaugural season overall record to 4-2 and moved to 3-1 in UCHC games. The Colonels also stayed unbeaten in the MAC at 2-0. King's dropped to 0-7 overall and 0-5 in the UCHC. The Monarchs are now 0-3 in MAC games.

Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI/) put the Colonels on the board early on with his first career goal. The freshman jammed a shot past the Monarchs goalkeeper Brandon Daigle at the near post off a pass from Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ) 5:56 into the first period for the goal.

Wilkes controlled the majority of play the rest of the period and had chances to extend its lead including two power plays where the Colonels registered four shots on goal. Wilkes killed off a King's power play to close the first period without allowing a shot on goal and drew a late penalty on the Monarchs to start the second 20 minutes on the man advantage.

The Colonels had to wait a bit longer than the normal intermission break as a Zamboni issue forced a longer delay. Wilkes was unable to find the net once they were able to return to the ice as shots by Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/) and Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/) went wide of goal.

Scott Aaron (Madison, AL/) was able to provided Wilkes with a 2-0 though at the 5:05 mark of the second period when he fired a shot from the right-side of the ice near the blue line that deflected on its way past Daigle and into the top-left corner. It was the defenseman's first career goal in only his second collegiate game and Erickson picked up the helper on the play.

Gordon then made two saves to keep the Colonels two-goal lead. After an unsuccessful power play for Wilkes Gordon made another save this time going from his left to his right across the crease to make a terrific save on Michael Dischiavi. Wilkes took a penalty on the play but was able to kill the opportunity off.

Wilkes took an interference penalty at the 15:21 mark of the second to put the hosts back on the man advantage but it was Araujo who registered the first scoring chance with a shorthanded breakaway that was stopped. Gordon then made one save on the power play chance as Wilkes was able to kill off its third of the game. Wade Novak (Oak Ridge, NJ/) then fired a shot off the right post with 1:35 left in the period.

The Colonels were sent to the box one more time with 1:07 left in the second but blocked shots by Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/), Paul Cimilluca (Colonia, NJ/) and Chris Dalfarra (Warrington, PA/) sent Wilkes into the dressing room with its 2-0 lead.

Wilkes was able to keep King's away from goal to kill off the remaining 53 seconds of the penalty to start the third period. Flynn nearly added to the lead at the 7:00 mark but the net came off just before the puck crossed the line. Erickson then nearly picked up another point when he slid a pass to Austin Tonkovich (Canonsburg, PA/) but his redirection went just wide of the right post.

The Colonels kept the third-period pressure on and it paid off as Fea tallied his fifth goal of the season off assists from Novak and Araujo to make the score 3-0 at the 9:40 mark.

Gordon made 15 saves including eight in the second period to earn his first career shutout. Aaron, Erickson and Tonkovich finished the game with a plus-2 rating for Wilkes.

Daigle made 21 saves for King's as the Colonels held a 24-15 shots-on-goal advantage over the Monarchs.

The Colonels continue their road swing with a Tuesday afternoon contest at non-conference foe Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. at 4:30 p.m.