#10 Utica 3, Neumann 3 - Box Score

Utica, NY (2-11-12) – Utica College and Neumann University combined for six goals in the first 24:07 of play, but that proved to be all the scoring that the 3,435 fans at the Utica Memorial Auditorium would see as the ECAC Men's West Conference rivals skated to a 3-3 overtime tie on Saturday night.   Sophomore defender Mike Slowikowski (Ewing, NJ/N.J. Hitmen (EJHL)) netted one goal and added one assist, while senior captain Tim Coffman (Elverson, PA/Laconia (AJHL)) tallied two assists in his final regular season home contest for the Pioneers. 

Utica (15-7-2) moved its record to 4-5-2 in conference play and the Pioneers cling to a two point edge on the Knights (13-7-2) who are now 3-6-2 in the ECAC West.  The Pioneers return to the ice for their final regular season contest of the year on Friday when they travel to conference-leading Elmira College for an ECAC West contest.  The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m. UC needs a win or a tie against Elmira to lock up the third seed in the conference tournament. 

The two teams were shot out of a cannon to start the contest as the first 52 seconds of the game featured a tally for each squad.  UC's Jon Gaffney (Dover, NJ/Springfield Blues (NAHL)) got the Pioneers on the board just 15 seconds into the game when he found open ice and scored on Neumann's Ross MacKinnon for the first time all weekend, much to the delight of the raucous Utica crowd, to give the home team a 1-0 lead.  The Knights answered right back, just 35 seconds later and knotted the score at 1-1 when Cory Park registered his 13th goal of the year.

At the 15:18 mark of the first period UC's Trever Hertz (Jaffray, British Columbia/Quesnel Millionaires (BCHL)) scored his 12th goal of the season, on the power-play, to put the Pioneers back on top 2-1.  Neumann answered with two goals, in a span of less than two minutes to close out the first period with a 3-2 advantage. 

Slowikowski recorded the game-tying goal 4:07 into the second period when he sent a wrist shot on net from the point that beat MacKinnon on the right side.  Coffman and junior assistant captain Evan Chlanda (Islip, NY/Springfield (EJHL)) were each credited with an assist on Slowikowski's fifth tally of the year. 

Each team was held scoreless in the next 35 minutes of action and the contest was sent to overtime.

The Pioneers had a huge opportunity just 20 seconds into the extra period when sophomore George Lotito (Staten Island, NY/NH Jr. Monarchs (EJHL)) broke into open ice all alone, but MacKinnon stoned Lotito's back hand opportunity with his glove to hold the score at 3-3.  MacKinnon had another nice evening in net, stopping 38 shots, as the Pioneers outshot the visitors 41-25. 

Evan Smith (Penticton, British Columbia/Calgary Royals (AJHL)) stopped all 17 shots he face in net for Utica after replacing sophomore classmate Nick Therrien (Rochester, NH/NY Apple Core (EJHL)) at the beginning of the second period.  Justin Hogan (Val Therese, Ontario/Brooks Bandits (AJHL)) and Lotito were also credited with assists for UC.

The Pioneers bid farewell to four seniors including all-time leading scorer Tim Coffman (Elverson, PA/Laconia (AJHL)), assistant captain Max White (Sands Point, NY/NY Bobcats (AJHL)), forward Soichiro Omi (Tokyo, Japan/Bradford (GMHL)) and goalie Kyle Guestin (Kingsburg, CA/Prairie (PJHL)). 

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