WILKES-BARRE – Junior forward Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/) netted three goals to provide the offense for the Wilkes University men's ice hockey team during its season-opening game won by visiting SUNY Canton 5-3 at the Toyota SportsPlex Friday night.

The non-conference contest opened the second season of Wilkes men's ice hockey and was the first game under the direction of head coach Tyler Hynes.

Despite having four first-period power plays, that produced nine total shots, the Colonels found themselves trailing 2-0 at the first intermission. Stuart Fierheller scored 6:53 into the first period shorthanded and then Max Routledge added a power play tally at the 13:45 mark to spot the Roos the early lead. Michael Cerasuolo stopped all 14 of the Colonels first-period shots.

Jesse Farabee added to the SUNY Canton lead just 15 seconds into the second period. Araujo put the Colonels on the scoreboard with their first goal of the season shorthanded at the 4:25 mark of the second period. Joey Pasquini (Schenectady, NY/) found himself in on a breakaway after a pass up the middle of the ice from the Colonels own end by Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/). Pasquini's shot was stopped by the goaltender but Araujo cleaned up the rebound left out front for the goal. Pasquini and Gurska earned assists on the play that made the score 3-1.

On the eighth Wilkes power play of the night the Colonels connected for their first man-advantage goal when Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ/) found Araujo alone in front with a pass from the sideboards. Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/) also picked up an assist on the goal that made the score 3-2 with 1:06 left in the second period. The second period was dominated by the Colonels as they had a 25 to nine shots advantage over the 20 minutes.

Kyler Matthews scored five minutes into the third period to put SUNY Canton ahead 4-2 as his shot from the point on the power play found its way through traffic and into the Wilkes goal.

Araujo completed his hat trick as Wilkes answered with a power play goal of its own to make the score 4-3 with 7:29 left in the game. Fea worked his way up the right side of the ice before playing a pass across the face of goal where Araujo found the open net.

Wilkes pressed for the tying goal and as time ticked down decided to pull the goalie for an extra skater. SUNY Canton's Jake Mayette then added an insurance goal as he and Sean David traded passes before finding the open net at the 18:33 mark.

Brandon Gordon (Sault Ste. Marie, MI/) made 24 saves, eight in each period, for the Colonels. Cerasuolo made 46 saves on the night between the pipes for the Roos including 23 in the second period.

Flynn led all skaters with nine shots in the game as Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/) followed with seven and Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI/) and Fea added six apiece. Flynn was the top faceoff man for the Colonels as he won 15 of 25 on the night. Matthew had one goal and three assists for the Roos. SUNY Canton held the slight 35-33 edge on total faceoff wins while Wilkes dominated in shots with a 49-29 advantage. Wilkes finished 2-for-9 on the power play and SUNY Canton went 2-for-6 in the penalty filled game.

The Colonels return to action next Friday, November 8 when they host Lebanon Valley College at 5:00 p.m. inside the Toyota SportsPlex for the first United Collegiate Hockey Conference game of the season. The two teams will also play the tilt as part of the Middle Atlantic Conference slate of games.