Wilkes Men's Ice Hockey Downed in Regular Season Finale at #15 Utica
UTICA, N.Y. – Three second period goals downed the Wilkes University men's ice hockey team in its final regular-season matchup in its inaugural trip around the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC), a 4-2 loss at #15 Utica College on Saturday evening.
The Colonels finish the regular season 16-7-2 overall, including 11-5-2 in conference play.
Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI/) found himself with the first scoring chance of the game around 13 minutes in, picking up a loose puck in the offensive zone and gaining a backhanded opportunity racing up the left side but was turned away by Utica's goaltender to keep the game tied at zero.
Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/) made a key defensive play with just over five minutes left in the first when a Pioneer forward took the puck behind the net going left to right and attempted to slide a pass into the slot for a wide-open one timer but Gurska was there to play the puck away from the net.
Brandon Gordon (Sault Ste. Marie, MI/) made a miraculous save with 3:30 left until the first intermission when a Utica shot from the left circle appeared to handcuff him, but Gordon was able to extend his leg enough to stop the shot with his skate.
The Pioneers opened the scoring with a goal at 16:41 right off a faceoff.
Play came to a stop with 2:40 left when Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/) and Utica's Shawn Lynch found themselves in a skirmish in front of the Colonels bench resulting in a five minute major for fighting and a game misconduct for Lynch and a two-minute slashing minor for Barrow, putting Wilkes on the power play for three minutes after two minutes of four-on-four play that extended into the second period.
Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/) knotted the score at one with 11:46 remaining in the second with a power play tally assisted by Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/) and Chris Dalfarra (Warrington, PA/).
Utica retook the lead 57 seconds later with a power play goal, pushed its lead to 3-1 at 9:52 with another power play goal, and netted a fourth goal at 10:24.
Taylor Bommarito (Sterling Heights, MI/) got the Colonels within two goals with just over six minutes remaining in the second when Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ) won a faceoff to the left side that was immediately lasered on net by Bommarito and past Pioneers goalie Gianluca Bagetta.
Wilkes outshot Utica 15-7 in the third but was unable to put any more shots past Bagetta.
Gordon did his best to keep the Colonels in the game making 36 saves, including multiple sprawling efforts. Bagetta made 28 saves for the Pioneers.
Wilkes now heads to the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) Tournament. With 37 points in the regular season, the Colonels finished in a tie with Manhattanville College; however, the Valiants own the tiebreaker, which knocks Wilkes to the fourth seed and a matchup with Nazareth College. The Colonels went 1-0-1 in the teams' two regular season matchups, including Saturday's 1-1 tie that ended in a shootout victory for Wilkes. The postseason game is scheduled for Tuesday, February 19th at 7:00 p.m. inside the Toyota SportsPlex.
