Wilkes Men's Ice Hockey Puts Forth Dominating Effort to Capture First MAC Title
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's ice hockey team put forth one of its most dominating performances of the season on Saturday evening, using a five-goal second period to capture the program's first Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championship, defeating No. 14 Stevenson University 6-0 at the Toyota SportsPlex.
The Colonels improved to 11-2-0 in United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) play, 5-0-0 in MAC play, and 15-5-0 overall with the victory.
"We have a great group of guys," head coach Tyler Hynes explained. "It's a great group of young men who do the right things on and off the ice and I'm happy they got rewarded for it today. It was an exciting day for the program."
The first period ended in a scoreless tie, however, Wilkes held a 14-7 advantage in shots.
The Colonels went on a power-play early in the second period following a Stevenson slashing minor and Wilkes took advantage of the opportunity when Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ/) scored his fourth goal in two days with assists from Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/) and Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/) to give the Colonels a 1-0 advantage at 3:08.
Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/) doubled the lead at 15:04 of the second as Wilkes again notched a power-play tally with a helper from Fea.
Jay Gallagher (Reading, MA/) joined the scoring column 25 seconds later when he put one past the Mustangs goaltender at 15:29 assisted by Dylan Kuipers (Andover, NJ/) for the contests first even-strength goal making the lead 3-0.
Barrow put the game away with consecutive breakaway goals at 16:59 and 18:49 of the second period, with Billy Berry (Redding, CT) picking up an assist on the first score.
Gallagher finished the scoring at 8:57 of the third assisted by Xavier Abdella (Albany, NY/) to put the game away with the Colonels flowing over the boards as time expired to celebrate the title.
"We have bigger goals ahead of us, but I think that this was a really good testament to the character and leadership we have in the room," team captain Gurska said after the game. "I think it really showed on the ice tonight."
Fellow captain Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/) echoed Gurska's thoughts, saying, "It's awesome. We have a great group of guys, so it makes being a captain much easier when you have such great guys and everybody comes to play."
Michael Paterson-Jones (Baldwinsville, NY) earned his second career shutout, stopping all 23 shots Stevenson sent his way. "Paterson-Jones has been phenomenal in net," Hynes commented. "Ever since he got his first game he has never looked back. I'm really proud of him as a freshman, because that is a big stage to be on against the number one team in the league coming in and to beat them for the second time this year."
Joey Pasquini (Schenectady, NY/) led the Colonels in the face-off circle, winning 14-of-17 attempts. Berry and Danny Reidel (Wayne, NJ) each finished with a plus-three rating.
Wilkes returns to the ice on Thursday when it will host King's College for a 7:30 p.m. MAC and UCHC contest.
