Wilkes Men's Ice Hockey Downs Lebanon Valley 6-3
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's ice hockey team continued its heart-stopping ways, erasing a two-goal deficit by scoring the game's final five tallies to knock off Lebanon Valley College for the second time in three days with a 6-3 victory at the Toyota SportsPlex on Friday evening.
The Colonels improved to 5-0-0 in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC), 8-2-0 in the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC), and 12-4-0 overall with the win.
Lebanon Valley got on the board just 1:27 into the game with a wrist shot.
Wilkes responded with 12:21 left in the first when Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ) punched one home with assists from Brendan Logan (Matthews, NC) and Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/).
The Dutchmen notched a second early period goal when a shot with eyes got through traffic and into the net just 23 seconds into the second period. Lebanon Valley took a two-goal lead at 13:25 with a power-play goal.
The Colonels began to chip away with 1:10 remaining when Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI/) danced around a defender and deked around the Dutchmen's goaltender with assists from Paul Cimilluca (Colonia, NJ/) and Chris Dalfarra (Warrington, PA/).
Wilkes tied the game 59 seconds into the third when Flynn found himself with a wide-open net for a tip-in after some beautiful passing from Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/) and Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/). Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/) gave the Colonels their first lead with 17:15 on the clock with assists from Fea and Barrow, and the Colonels never looked back.
Wilkes finished the scoring with a Devon Schell (Scarsdale, NY/) even-strength goal at 6:06, and finished the output with an empty-net shorthanded goal from Erickson with an assist from Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/) with 17 seconds left.
Flynn and Erickson each finished with two goals with Erickson registering a plus-four rating. Gurska added a goal with a plus-three rating and Barrow contributed three assists.
Brandon Gordon (Sault Ste. Marie, MI/) stopped 16 shots to earn his 10th win of the season.
The Colonels return to action on Monday when they face Elmira College for a UCHC contest starting at 1:00 p.m.
