WILKES-BARRE – The third-seeded Wilkes University men's ice hockey team is set to take on the number two seed Stevenson University with a trip to the 2024 UCHC Tournament Finals on the line. Puck drop from the Reisterstown Sportsplex is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
 
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Wilkes enters the game coming off a dominant 5-1 victory over the six-seed Chatham University in the UCHC quarterfinal round on Wednesday. The win brought the Colonels' overall record to 18-8-0. The team finished the regular season by winning six of their last eight to wrap up the conference slate with a 15-5-0 record.
 
The Blue and Gold enjoyed balanced goal production in Wednesday's game against Chatham as Cole Jungwirth (Bloomington, MN/), Daniel Nau (Wake Forest, NC), Billy Berry (Redding, CT), Lorenzo Marcolin (Saratoga Springs, NY/) and Jimmy O'Kane (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame Prep) all lit the lamp. Goaltender Jack Perna (Sykesville, MD) turned aside 31 shots in net for Wilkes while the team as a whole blocked a whopping 16 shots. Matt Carlson (Delmar, NY/), Berry Max Cocchi (Ludlow, MA/) and Berry all notched double-digit draws at the dot, winning 14, 11 and 10 faceoffs respectively.
 
 
Through the regular season, Nick Swain (Jackson, NJ) tallied a team and conference-high 20 goals with nine assists to lead the Colonels with 29 points. Berry followed closely behind Swain with 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) while Cam Lowe (Lancaster, MA/) finished third on the team with eight goals and 18 assists for a total of 26 points. O'Kane (eight goals, 16 assists) and Jungwirth (three goals, 19 assists) round out the top-five point producers with 24 and 22 points respectively. Meanwhile, Joe Johnson (Midland, MI/) wrapped up the regular season with a team-high 20 assists and one goal for a total of 21 points.
 
Cocchi was an impressive +16 on the ice for the Blue and Gold. Berry put together 294 faceoff wins to finish first on the team and fifth in the conference. Defensively, Jungwirth laid out for a team-high 34 blocks on the season.
 
Between the pipes, Perna boasted a 2.42 goals against average; the fifth-lowest mark in the conference. He amassed 371 saves while only allowing 33 goals for a .918 save percentage.
 
The two-seeded Mustangs are coming off a 5-1 victory over the number seven-seed King's College on Wednesday. Graeme McCrory, Evan Beers, Blake Benson, Frank Vitucci and Zach Bannister all notched goals while Ty Outen made 22 saves in net. The win elevated Stevenson's overall record to 20-5-1. The team finished their regular season at 15-4-1 in conference matchups.
 
Stevenson welcomes Wilkes to the Reisterstown Sportsplex for the third time this season after splitting the season series two weeks ago. The Colonels took the first game in overtime, winning 4-3 on Friday, February 9. The following day, the No. 13 Mustangs responded with a tight 3-2 win on their home ice.
 
Wilkes head coach Tyler Hynes reflected on the regular season series positively, saying that Stevenson has "made us better since we started this program, they've been a team that has really pushed us." He added that "I hope that we can learn from that experience; take some things that we did well from it and apply that going into this weekend."
 
Benson leads the Mustangs with 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists), followed closely behind by Liam McCanney and Bannister who each have 27 points. McCanney potted 20 goals, giving him the team lead. Benson and Bannister stand locked in a tie for second with 10 goals apiece.
 
McCanney also possesses the highest plus/minus on the team with a +19 rating on the ice. Eric Olson has won a team-high 238 faceoffs while Malcolm Palmer has blocked 24 shots for the Mustangs.
 
When asked what he expects from Saturday's tilt, Hynes predicted that "it's going to be a dog fight, it's going to be a close game." The moment is not lost on the Colonels' bench boss, who noted that "it's a privilege to be playing hockey right now with over 50 teams across the country whose seasons are over."
 
Tune in on Saturday to watch the Colonels and Mustangs compete for a berth in the UCHC Tournament Finals.