WILKES-BARRE – In the program's inaugural season, the Wilkes University men's ice hockey team has earned the No. 4 seed in the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) Championship Tournament and will host No. 5 seed Nazareth College in an Opening Round game Tuesday at the Toyota SportsPlex with puck drop scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

An automatic bid to the NCAA tournament is on the line for the winner of the UCHC Championship Tournament.

Admission to the contest at the Toyota SportsPlex will be free to all fans. Live stats and video links for those who are unable to attend the game are provided below:

Live Stats

Live Video

The Colonels finished their first regular season of play with a 16-7-2 overall record under the direction of head coach Brett Riley. They claimed the No. 4 seed with a UCHC record of 11-5-2 and 37 points. Wilkes went 1-0-1 against Nazareth this season. The Colonels defeated the Golden Flyers 3-2 at the Mohegan Sun Arena on December 8 and then the two sides tied 1-1 in Rochester, N.Y. this past Friday. Wilkes earned the extra UCHC point in that game with a shootout victory as the Colonels took five of the possible six points available from the Golden Flyers this season.

Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ) leads the Colonels and ranks fourth in the UCHC with 37 points this season. The freshman led Wilkes with 14 goals and 23 assists during the regular season with those numbers ranking tied for fifth and tied for second in the conference.

Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/) was second on the team and seventh in the conference with 34 points (13 goals and 21 assists). Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/) followed in ninth with 29 points (9 goals and 20 assists) and Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/) ranked 11th with 27 points (10 goals and 17 assists). Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI/) led the conference with four short-handed goals. Brendan Logan (Matthews, NC) has accumulated 11 points on six goals and five assists over the span of 13 games since joining the team once the calendar turned to 2019.

Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/) has led the Colonels blueline with a team-high plus-19 rating and 39 blocked shots. He also led the Wilkes defensemen with 15 points on five goals and 10 assists. Paul Cimilluca (Colonia, NJ/) ranked second on the team with 25 blocked shots.

Between the pipes Brandon Gordon (Sault Ste. Marie, MI/) registered a 14-7-2 record with a 2.72 goals-against-average and .893 save percentage. Those numbers ranked fourth and sixth among UCHC goaltenders this season. He collected three shutouts and had a season-best mark of 34 saves this past Saturday at No. 15 Utica College.

Out of the 10-team conference, Wilkes ranked third with 3.76 goals-per-game, fourth with 2.72 goals-allowed-per-game, third with 34.68 shots-per-game and eighth with a .474 faceoff percentage.

Nazareth finished the regular season with an 11-7-7 overall record. The Golden Flyers earned the No. 5 seed in the UCHC with an 8-5-5 record and 30 points.

David Powlowski led the Golden Flyers in goals and points with 10 and 23 respectively. J.R. Wojciechowski was the team leader with 15 assists and a plus-10 rating. Joining Wojciechowski with a plus-10 rating was Jacob Paluch. Cody Antonini led Nazareth with 16 blocked shots.

Sean Kuhn is the top goaltender for the Golden Flyers as he ranked second in the UCHC with a 2.38 goals-against-average and .929 save percentage.

Nazareth ranked eighth in the conference with 2.93 goals-per-game, second with 2.41 goals-allowed-per-game, seventh with 30.93 shots-per-game and first with a .544 faceoff percentage.

The winner of the Tuesday's Opening Round game will move onto the Semifinal Round this weekend and will play either No. 1 seed Utica College or No. 2 seed Elmira College.

The other Opening Round game on Tuesday will feature No. 3 seed Manhattanville College hosting No. 6 seed Lebanon Valley College. The lowest remaining seed will travel to Utica with the higher remaining seed facing off with Elmira in the Semifinal Round which will be competed under the NCAA Minigame Series Format.