UTICA, NY - The Utica College men's hockey team tied nationally-ranked No. 5 Elmira College 4-4 in ECAC Men's West Conference play in front of 3,080 fans at the Utica Memorial Auditorium Friday night. UC held a 4-1 advantage in the second period but allowed three unanswered goals to let the Soaring Eagles back into the contest.

The Pioneers are now 10-11-3 overall and 4-9-1 in conference play. Elmira is 16-5-3 overall and 9-2-3 in the ECAC West.

Elmira opened the scoring 2:06 into the first period of play when junior forward Jan Velich netted his 14th goal of the season past UC goalie Anthony Luckow. Luckow was hugging the left post and Velich beat him on the right side to give the Soaring Eagles a 1-0 lead.

The Pioneers knotted the contest up at 1-1 when Matt Fitzgibbons stole the puck in the Soaring Eagles zone and tipped it out to freshman Tim Coffman on the left side. Coffman fed Aarron Jeffery, who was streaking towards the net, and Jeffery directed the puck past EC goalie Casey Tuttle on the right side.

UC took a 2-1 lead when senior assistant captain T.J. Schneider tipped home his fifth goal of the season. Junior defender Kregg Guestin sent the intial shot in on goal to earn the assist with 1:02 left in the second period.

Jeffery gave the Pioneers a comanding 3-1 lead when he knocked home his eighth goal of the season. Junior Matt Fitzgibbons sent a shot on net that was saved by Tuttle but the puck flew straight up and Jeffery slapped it out of the air and into the back of the net.

Tim Coffman tallied the Pioneers fourth goal of the evening, his team-best 17th of the season, 9:15 into the second period. Coffman made a beutiful move from right to left in front of the net to beat an out stretched Tuttle on the blocker side.

Elmira cut the Pioneers lead in half, 4-2, when senior forward Matt Blake ripped a wrist shot from 15 feet out that beat Luckow in the top left corner 15:40 into the second period. Blake's second goal of the season was assisted by Darcy Vaillancourt and freshman forward Rick Acorn.

Elmira continued to crawl back in the game and cut UC's lead to just one, 4-3, when Velich tallied his second goal of evening with just under ten minutes to go in the game. Senior defender Kyle Branson and freshman linemate Brock Sawyer each registered an assist on the Soaring Eagles third goal of the evening.

Elmira tied the contest up at 4-4 when freshman forward Brendan Sanders scored a power-play goal with 1:18 left on the third period clock. Velich and Sawyer assisted on the goal that sent the contest into overtime.

The Pioneers opened the overtime stanza on a power-play but both teams were held scoreless in through five minutes and the contest ended in a tie.

Luckow stopped 35 shots in net for the Pioneers, while Tuttle made 26 saves for Elmira.

UC hits the road tommorow for its final regular season contest at Elmira. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.

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