WILKES-BARRE – Four different skaters found the back of the net for the Wilkes men's ice hockey team as they shut out their UCHC opponent Chatham University by a score of 4-0 at the Toyota SportsPlex Saturday afternoon.
 
The win elevated the Colonels' overall record to 7-3-0. They currently stand at 5-2-0 in the UCHC. The Cougars fell to 3-6-0 overall and 2-5-0 in conference play.
 
Wilkes opened the scoring at 13:43 into the first period. After Jimmy O'Kane (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame Prep) freed the puck from a board battle in the corner of the ice, he sent a pass to Nate Terski (North Grafton, MA) who was waiting at the point. Terski floated a shot towards the net which Nick Swain (Jackson, NJ/) deflected through the pads of the Chatham goaltender. Swain's conference-leading eighth goal of the season was assisted by Terski and O'Kane.
 
Less than two minutes later, the Colonels would strike again on a nifty play by Cam Lowe (Lancaster, MA/). Miles Harrington (McDonough, GA) broke the puck out of the Wilkes zone and slid a short pass to Lowe, who raced towards goal and cut across the ice to avoid several Cougar defenders. He finished the play with a beautiful backhand shot that beat goalie Cameron Kuntar. Lowe's 2-0 goal was assisted by Harrington at 15:06.
 
The Colonels looked to build on their lead in the second period as the team headed to the man advantage twice. Although they generated four shots-on-goal on the pair of power plays, they were unable to light the lamp in the middle frame.
 
Colonel goaltender Michael Paterson-Jones (Baldwinsville, NY/) continued his lights-out performance in the second period, making nine stops to bring his total to 20 saves through 40 minutes of play. Wilkes took their two-goal lead into the intermission looking to keep Chatham's offense stagnant for the final period of action.
 
The Colonels' biggest test of the game came when they were forced to kill a five-on-three Cougar power play. During penalty kill, Wilkes picked up clutch blocks by Joe Johnson (Midland, MI/), O'Kane and Terski along with a pair of saves by Paterson-Jones. Chatham failed to capitalize on the two-man advantage and Paterson-Jones' shutout remained intact.
 
Wilkes would pad their lead on a power play midway through the third. Jimmy O'Kane (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame Prep) cycled around the attacking zone and sent a cross-ice feed to Matt Carlson (Delmar, NY/), who received the pass, spun towards the goal and buried a wrist shot to give the Colonels a 3-0 lead. O'Kane was credited with his second helper of the day and Daniel Nau (Wake Forest, NC) picked up a secondary assist on the goal at 13:27.
 
With 3:20 remaining in regulation time, Chatham made a late push and pulled their goalie in favor of an extra attacker. Billy Berry (Redding, CT) won a crucial draw in the Colonels' defensive zone and shoveled the puck forward to O'Kane, who clapped a shot all the way down the ice and into the unattended goal to make it 4-0. Berry picked up the lone assist on the play at 17:48 into the third.
 
The Colonels would survive a late Chatham power play and secure the victory 4-0.
 
Berry, Lowe and Patrick Roginski (Shelby Twp., MI/) all shared the team lead in shots with five each. O'Kane contributed to three of Wilkes' goals, finishing the night with a goal, two assists and four shots on goal. Carlson was solid at the dot, winning 12 of 16 faceoffs. Paterson-Jones was huge in net for the Colonels and put together a 36-save shutout performance.
 
Cristian Adragna led the Cougars with six shots, followed by Bekk McClaine who had five. Zack Conner made four blocks on the day while Kuntar made an impressive 40 saves in the outing.
 
Wilkes and Chatham will meet again at the Toyota SportsPlex on Sunday afternoon when the two teams face off at 4:00 p.m.