UTICA, NY (1/8/2014) – The nationally-ranked No. 8 Utica College men's hockey team returns to the ice on Friday at 7 p.m. to take on the Western New England University Golden Bears for the AmeriCU I Heart Hockey Night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The Pioneers will return home Saturday to host Assured Information Security Night at 7 p.m. against the Oswego State Lakers.
AmeriCU I Heart Hockey Night: On Friday night UC will join forces with AmeriCU Credit Union to support the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY through their I Heart Hockey Night initiative … The UC hockey program will wear collector's edition blue away game jerseys in its game against Western New England College … Fans will be able to bid on the jerseys at designated tables in the Auditorium concourse throughout the game.
Catch All the Action: Several options are available to follow this weekend's contests if you cannot make it out to Utica Memorial Auditorium… Both games this weekend will be broadcast on ESPN Radio 99.1 FM or online at
www.espnur.com by play-by-play man Dave Peroni and color analyst Fred Miller … Friday night's game will also be called by play-by-play man Ray Biggs with Vanessa Maines doing color commentary on WPNR 90.7 FM or follow audio online at
www.utica.edu/student/activities/organizations/wpnr/listenlive.cfm ... Michael Keeley will join Ray and Vanessa for Saturday's game … Live stats for both games can be found online at:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/utica/mhockey/ and live video for the games can be viewed at:
http://empire8.tv/ … Fans can also follow live updates on the Pioneers official Twitter feed, @UCPioneers … If you are at the game and on Twitter, or talking about the game on Twitter, make sure to use #LetsGoUC … Fans can also find updates on the Pioneers Facebook page at www.facebook.com/UCpioneers.
Last Time Out: The Pioneers played in the Pathfinder Bank/Oswego Classic last weekend, beating Wisconsin-Stout 4-2 Friday night, before skating to a 2-2 tie against Oswego in Saturday's championship game … The Lakers edged Utica in a shootout to take the tournament title … Utica was led by senior
Jon Gaffney (Dover, NJ/Springfield Blues (NAHL)) (three goals) and freshmen
Luc Boby (Chicago, IL/Kalamazoo (NAHL)) (one goal, four assists) … Between the pipes, senior
Nick Therrien (Rochester, NH/NY Apple Core (EJHL)) stopped 32 shots against UW-Stout, but freshman
Marcus Zelzer (Green Bay, WI/Kenai River (NAHL)) got the nod versus Oswego and recorded 42 saves in the shoot-out loss.
National Spotlight: UC is ranked 8th in both the uscho.com and the D3hockey.com national polls … Senior goaltender
Nick Therrien (Rochester, NH/NY Apple Core (EJHL)) is 17th in the country in goals against average (2.096), and 16th in save percentage (.928) … As a team, the Pioneers are 21st in the nation with 3.54 goals per game … Topping that, defense has been key, with the team ranking 11th in team defensive scoring with only giving up two goals per game … Utica has killed 55 of 63 power-plays this season, making them the 17th best penalty kill unit in the country (87.3%).
Leading the Way: Four seniors are the top scorers for the Pioneers this season …
Adam Graff (Bear, DE/Syracuse Stars (EJHL)) is leading the team in goals (six) and is tied for first in points with
Trever Hertz (Jaffray, British Columbia/Quesnel Millionaires (BCHL)) (12) … Closely behind them are two other seniors,
Rob Morton (New Hartford, NY/Merrimack (Hockey East)) and
Jon Gaffney (Dover, NJ/Springfield Blues (NAHL)) (10 points) … Hertz, Gaffney and Graff each have a game with three points this season… Morton and Gaffney have each recorded three assists in a single game.
Climbing the Record Books: Senior
Trever Hertz (Jaffray, British Columbia/Quesnel Millionaires (BCHL)) is the Pioneers active career scoring leader with 89 points in 90 career games … Hertz ranks fourth all-time at UC with 40 goals and 49 career assists and he now needs five points to move into third place all-time at UC … Tim Coffman '12 is the Pioneers' all-time leading scorer (139 career points), Pioneer Hall of Famer Jimmy Sokol '05 ranks second (129) and recent graduate
Evan Chlanda (Islip, NY/Springfield (EJHL)) '13 ranks third (93) …Utica senior forward
Jon Gaffney (Dover, NJ/Springfield Blues (NAHL)) ranks fifth all-time with 83 career points (41 goals, 42 assists) … Utica's
Louie Educate (Chicago, IL/Aberdeen (NAHL)) has 45 career points and he also chipped in with a 42 point freshman campaign at Nichols, before transferring to UC, for a total of 87 points at the collegiate level.
UC Players to Watch: Senior
Rob Morton (New Hartford, NY/Merrimack (Hockey East)) has seen success against Oswego in his career … In five career games against the Lakers, Morton has three goals and three assists, totaling in six points …
Louie Educate (Chicago, IL/Aberdeen (NAHL)) has netted three goals and one assist in only three games against Oswego … Goaltender
Nick Therrien (Rochester, NH/NY Apple Core (EJHL)) is 3-2 in his career against the Lakers … He stopped 29 shots in a 3-2 win on 12/7/12 and recorded 25 saves in a 6-0 victory on 1/5/13 last season.
ECAC West Honors: Senior forward
Jon Gaffney (Dover, NJ/Springfield Blues (NAHL)) and freshman line mate
Luc Boby (Chicago, IL/Kalamazoo (NAHL)) were each honored with weekly awards by the ECAC Men's West Conference on Monday afternoon … Gaffney was named the conference's Player of the Week, while Boby garnered his first collegiate Rookie of the Week distinction … The forward line of Gaffney, Boby and senior
Rob Morton (New Hartford, NY/Merrimack (Hockey East)) registered four of the Pioneers' six goals at the 2014 PathFinder Banker Oswego State Hockey Classic … Gaffney netted three goals on his way to earning all-tournament team status, while Boby was the high point man for the weekend registering five points on one goal and four assists … Morton chipped in with three assists of his own …Boby headed into the weekend with one goal and one assist for the first four games of his career … He exploded with one goal and four assists over the weekend … Utica scored six goals the entire weekend and Boby played a part in five of them.Â
Scouting Western New England: The Golden Bears come into the Aud this weekend with an 8-4 overall record and 3-2 ledger in the ECAC Northeast Conference … They are coming off of a 5-4 home victory over Framingham State on January 7th … Western New England is led by forward Brian Prost who is leading the team in points (12) … The Golden Bears have not had any success against the Pioneers losing all four games, while being outscored 30-5.
Scouting Oswego: The Lakers are coming off of a 5-0 victory over Connecticut College … They are 7-2-2 overall with a 4-2-1 record in the SUNYAC Conference … Oswego is led by two freshman Kenny Neil (four goals, nine assists) and Matt Galati (eight goals, four assists) … In the last five meetings between the Lakers and Pioneers, UC has held a 3-1-1 advantage over Oswego … In the last matchup, the teams tied in the Pathfinder Bank/Oswego Classic and the Lakers won the tournament in a shootout.
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