No. 14 Wilkes Men's Hockey Completes Perfect MAC Season with 9-3 Win over King's
WILKES-BARRE – The No. 14 Wilkes University men's ice hockey team completed a perfect 2019-2020 slate of Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) games with a 9-3 victory over King's College at the Toyota SportsPlex on Thursday evening.
The Colonels improved to 6-0-0 in MAC games, 12-2-0 in the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC), and 16-5-0 overall.
Danny Reidel (Wayne, NJ) opened the scoring at 8:11 of the first period with a goal assisted by Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/) and Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/).
King's evened the score at 10:39 when Liam Johnson scored on the power-play assisted by Alex Bastone and Rob Sheehan as the first period ended in a 1-1 tie.
Nick Godfrey (Cedar Run, NJ) put the Colonels in front for good with an even-strength tally at 3:44 of the second with helpers from Charlie Spetz (Oak Ridge, NJ) and Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI/).
Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/) scored back-to-back goals at 5:00 and 12:39 of the second with assists from Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ/) and Paul Cimilluca (Colonia, NJ/) on the first and Dylan Kuipers (Andover, NJ/) for the second to put Wilkes up 4-1.
The Monarchs closed the gap to 4-2 with a goal at 15:55 of the second.
The Colonels potted five more goals from Erickson (16:51 second, assists from Devon Schell (Scarsdale, NY/) and Gurska), Tyson Araujo (Oak Bluffs, MA/) on the power-play (1:25 third period, assists from Fea and Gurska), Barrow on the power-play (4:49 third, assists from Gurska and Flynn), Schell (6:10 third, assists from Erickson and Spetz), and Araujo (15:45 third, assists from Barrow and Flynn).
King's scored its third goal at 13:34 of the third on the power-play.
Michael Paterson-Jones (Baldwinsville, NY) earned the win stopping 12 shots in 51:21 before being replaced by Nico Pidro (Cannonsburg, PA/), who made three saves. Monarchs goaltender Brandon Daigle stopped 57 of 66 shots.
The Colonels won 50 of 79 face-offs in the game, led by Schell with 14 wins followed by Flynn and Joey Pasquini (Schenectady, NY/) at 12 each.
Gurska led Wilkes on the scoresheet with four points while Erickson, Schell, and Godfrey all held a plus-three rating.
The Colonels return to the ice next Friday at 5:00 p.m. when they host UCHC opponent Neumann University for the final regular-season home game of the season.
