Wilkes Men's Ice Hockey Rolls Past Nazareth
WILKES-BARRE – Three goals in the first and four in the third buoyed a dominating effort as the Wilkes University men's ice hockey team defeated Nazareth College by an 8-2 final from the Toyota SportsPlex in United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) action on Saturday evening.
The Colonels improved to 3-2 overall and in conference while the Golden Flyers fell to 0-3 in both.
Wilkes got the scoring started at 1:42 of the first period when Devon Schell (Scarsdale, NY) cashed in on a power-play opportunity with assists from Dylan Kuipers (Andover, NJ) and Toon De Schepper (Nieuwenrode, Belgium).
The Colonels added a second goal at 14:26 of the when Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ) found the back of the net with helpers from Charlie Spetz (Oak Ridge, NJ) and Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ). Wilkes jumped out to a 3-0 advantage at 16:12 of the first on the first collegiate goal for Jimmy O'Kane (Chicago, IL) and an assist from Jack Lane (South River, NJ), also the first points in the NCAA career of Lane.
Nazareth closed out the scoring with a power-play goal at 19:58 of the first by Michael Houlihan with assists from Ray Falso and Liam Beaudoin.
Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY) continued his hot play with a power-play goal assisted by Fea and Flynn at 15:03 of the second to push the advantage to 4-1.
The Golden Flyers cut the lead back two on Houlihan's second power-play score with assists from Mitch Culver and Falso.
The Colonels put the game away with a huge final period, getting the first goal of the season from Joey Pasquini (Schenectady, NY) (3:22, assisted by Nick Godfrey (Cedar Run, NJ)), Flynn (13:35, unassisted), Tyler Dill (South Lake Tahoe, CA) (13:56, unassisted), and Fea (15:57, assisted by Flynn and Barrow).
Michael Paterson-Jones (Baldwinsville, NY) stopped 30-of-32 shots to earn the victory. Raphael Provencher stopped 29-of-37 shots before Gage Roberts, who stopped his only shot faced, replaced him.
Spetz finished +3 for Wilkes while Flynn, O'Kane, Fea, Lane, and Dill all were +2.
The Colonels return to action next Sunday when they travel to Manhattanville College for a 5:00 p.m. UCHC contest.
