WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's ice hockey team scored a season high five goals to win the front end of a United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) and Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) series, 5-3 over visiting Alvernia University at the Toyota SportsPlex Saturday evening.

Wilkes improved to 5-7-1 overall with the victory and to 3-5-0 in the UCHC with 10 points. Alvernia slipped to 5-5-1 overall and to 4-5-0 with 12 points in the UCHC. The Colonels are now 1-1-0 with four points in the MAC and Alvernia is 0-3-0 still looking for its first MAC point in the Golden Wolves first season of competition.

Wilkes started the scoring with an early power play tally as first year Matt Carlson (Delmar, NY) scored his fifth goal of the season off assists from Cole Jungwirth (Bloomington, MN) and Nick Godfrey (Cedar Run, NJ), 5:19 into the first period. The Colonels made it 2-0 and two-for-two on the power play at the 8:12 mark of the first when graduate student Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI) scored his second of the year off assists from Cam Lowe (Lancaster, MA) and Joe Johnson (Midland, MI).

The Golden Wolves answered back with a goal with 3:28 left in the first period as Jason Finan scored off a faceoff win by Hunter Alden. Wilkes led 2-1 after the first 20 minutes and held a 10-8 lead in shots on goal.

Lowe scored the third goal of his first-year season and the third of the game for the Colonels 9:20 into the second period as he tucked one in at the near post past the Golden Wolves net minder as he streaked up the right side of the ice after a feed from Erickson inside the blue line. Steven Spetz (Oak Ridge, NJ) picked up the second assist on the play with a nice outlet pass from the Colonels defensive end.

Jungwirth extended the Wilkes lead to 4-1 at the 14:12 mark of the second period with the sophomore defenseman's first goal of the season as he put away a rebound from a Nick Swain (Jackson, NJ) shot. Ryan Galvin (Atlanta, GA) earned the second assist on the play as he fed Swain for his shot.

Alvernia held a 12-7 shots on goal edge in the second period but senior goaltender Michael Paterson-Jones (Baldwinsville, NY) stopped all of the Golden Wolves shots in the frame.

Max Cocchi (Ludlow, MA) netted his first of the season as the sophomore won the faceoff and went to the net where he received a pass from Swain and beat the goaltender down low 2:06 into the third period to make the score 5-1.

Alvernia scored at the 16:29 and 18:54 marks of the third with two late tallies by Andrew Deschenes and outshot Wilkes 12-7 again in the period but it was not enough to overcome the Colonels four-goal lead.

Paterson-Jones earned the victory with 29 saves on the night. Colin Cain made 19 saves for Alvernia.

Cocchi was dominant for the Colonels at the faceoff dot as he won 13-of-14 opportunities to help Wilkes lead 35-19 in the category.

Alvernia led 32-24 in shots on goal for the game. Wilkes went 2-for-4 on the power play while Alvernia was 1-for-3.

The two sides will finish the two-game UCHC and MAC series tomorrow at the Toyota SportsPlex with puck drop scheduled for 5:30 p.m.