No. 9 Wilkes Men's Ice Hockey Earns MAC Championship on Senior Night
WILKES-BARRE – The No. 9 Wilkes University men's ice hockey team earned the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championship with a 3-1 victory over MAC and United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) rival Stevenson University on Senior Night Saturday at the Toyota SportsPlex. It is the second MAC Championship for Wilkes men's ice hockey and head coach Tyler Hynes after they also won the title during the 2019-20 season.
Wilkes improved to 15-2-1 in the UCHC (46 points), 7-1-0 (21 points) in the MAC and 18-4-1 overall with the victory. Stevenson, who is receiving votes in the USCHO national poll, dropped to 14-4-0 (37 points) in the UCHC, 7-1-0 (19 points) in the MAC, and 18-6-1 overall with the loss.
The Colonels got off to a flying start with Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ/) blasting one home just 1:17 into the first period. Tyson Araujo (Vineyard Haven, MA) forced a turnover from a Mustang defenseman behind the net on the play and made the feed to Flynn who was unmarked.
The Colonels and Mustangs played an even remainder of the first period Stevenson held a 7-6 shots on goal edge in the period. Wilkes missed out on its one power play opportunity and were able to block shots to stave off two Stevenson power plays.
The goaltenders were up to the task in the second period as Ryan Kenny stopped all 12 of the Colonels shots on goal in the 20 minutes and Nico Pidro (Cannonsburg, PA/) shut down the Mustangs six shots on goal. Wilkes was 0-for-2 on the power play in the period and held Stevenson off the board on their one power play attempt that spilled over 44 seconds into the start of the third period.
Pidro made three saves early in the third period to kill off the rest of the carryover penalty. Tyler Dill (South Lake Tahoe, CA/) then made it a two-goal game with 3:07 gone in the third as he put one past Kenny from in front after Jay Gallagher (Reading, MA/) made nice work in the corner to win the puck and played as pass toward the net where Devon Schell (Scarsdale, NY/) battled with Kenny for the puck to come out to Dill for the score.
Stevenson answered just 35 seconds later as Chad Watt was able to score coming from behind the net with assists from Luke Benitez and Rory Gresham.
Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI/) then put the game away at 16:51 of the third when he took advantage of a Mustangs mistake at the Colonels blue line. The senior raced in on Kenny putting away the breakaway on the rebound after the goaltender made the initial save to make it 3-1.
Stevenson had one final power play late and pulled Kenny for a two-man advantage but the Colonels defense shut the Mustangs out.
Pidro made 27 saves, tied for his second highest total, including 14 in the third period as he moved to 8-1-1 on the season. Kenny stopped 23 shots for Stevenson.
Stevenson outshot Wilkes 28-26 while Wilkes won the faceoff battle 36-32 with Billy Berry (Redding, CT/) going 10-for-17 and Flynn 9-of-14. Wilkes went 0-for-3 on the power play with three shots while Stevenson was 0-for-4 with seven shots. Wilkes blocked 20 shots on the night while Stevenson blocked 11.
Wilkes recognized its 16 seniors prior to the game with a Senior Night ceremony. Recognized for their dedication to the program were, Pirdo, Xavier Abdella (Albany, NY/), Dylan Kuipers (Andover, NJ/), Gallagher, Araujo, Flynn, Michael Gurska (Revere, MA/), Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/Saint Anthony's), Schell, Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/), Ben Stefanini (Framingham, MA/), Danny Reidel (Wayne, NJ/), Ryan Galvin (Atlanta, GA/), Scott Mueller (Mount Juliet, TN/), Erickson, and Dill.
The Colonels have concluded the 2021-22 regular season and will next take to the ice at the Toyota SportsPlex as the No. 2 seed as UCHC Quarterfinal on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m.
