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The Utica College men's ice hockey team (4-1-0, 1-1-0 ECAC West) opens up a five game home stand this weekend when it hosts Westfield State and Oswego State at the Utica Memorial Auditorium Friday and Saturday. Saturday night, against nationally-ranked No. 2 Oswego State, is the First Source 'Pucks for Posters' Night in support of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children – Mohawk Valley. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

“This is another big weekend for us on our home ice. We can't look past Westfield right now. We need to come out and give our best effort on Friday night,” said Head Coach Gary Heenan. “Especially with this young team it is very important to take it one game at a time and that is what I am stressing right now.”

First Source 'Pucks for Posters' Night:

“The fan support has been great again and this weekend we are hosting another special event to help a great cause,” said Heenan of the 'Pucks for Posters' night on Saturday.

There will be a special opening ceremony including a ceremonial puck drop by Shirlette Green-Smith, mother of missing child Ivory Green. Plus Child ID Kits will be available, pink and turquoise Ride For Missing Children bracelets $1/each, a raffle for player-autographed Utica College hockey pucks, a raffle for a $500 Dick Sonne's gift certificate, T-shirt tossing by First Source FCU's Kirby Kangaroo, NCMEC's Clicky and U.C.'s Trax the Moose, plus a fun relay race on the ice after the first period. Lite 98.7 will be broadcasting live.

The Pioneers:

The Pioneers, who are averaging 3,124 fans per home contest this season, are off to their best start since 2004-2005 when they won the ECAC Men's West Regular season title and hosted the conference tournament for the only time in the program's ten year history.

Utica is currently ranked No. 24 in the nation after receiving six votes in the USCHO.com Division III National Poll released Monday. The Pioneers won their first four games of the season by outscoring their opponents 24-4 until meeting up with nationally-ranked No. 6 Elmira College on Saturday night.

Their most impressive win thus far came at Hobart on Friday night when UC upended the Statesmen 3-2 in a key conference contest. Headed into the contest Utica had not won at Hobart in over two years.

UC is currently led by sophomore forward Evan Chlanda (Islip, NY/Springfield (EJHL)) who has a team-high nine points (three goals, six assists) over the course of the first five games of the season. Freshman goalie Nick Therrien (Rochester, NH/NY Apple Core (EJHL)) is currently 2-0 with a 1.60 goals against average.

Throughout the ensuing five-game home stand, UC will welcome four nationally-ranked power houses, including No. 2 Oswego St., No. 5 Manhattanville College, No.18 Amherst, and No. 26 Neumann University.

The Opponents:

On Friday night UC will square-off against Westfield State College (0-1-1, MASCAC 0-0-0) for the first time in program-history. Westfield State is located in Westfield, Mass. and they compete in the MASCAC Conference. The Owls finished last season 13-10-3 overall and 10-5-3 in conference play, good enough to earn a spot in their conference tournament.

On Saturday, nationally-ranked No. 2 Oswego (6-0-0, 4-0-0 SUNYAC) will be welcomed to the Aud for the second straight year. The Lakers finished their 2009-10 campaign 26-3 overall and an astonishing 15-1 record in the SUNYAC. They advanced to the semi-final game of the NCAA Division III Tournament but lost to eventual national champion St. Norbert.

Oswego currently holds an 8-3-1 all-time series advantage over Utica and defeated the Pioneers in two, one goal, games last year.

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