HERSHEY, PA – The nationally-ranked No. 13 Utica College men's hockey team won its seventh straight game and locked up the outright ECAC Men's West Conference regular season title with a convincing 7-2 victory in conference play at Lebanon Valley College on Saturday afternoon.

The Pioneers (17-7-0) will be the top seed and have earned home ice advantage in the upcoming ECAC Men's West Conference Tournament as they improved to 12-1 in conference play. 12 wins in conference play is a new program-record and the Pioneers have now won the ECAC West regular season title for the third time in the last five years.  

UC will host Nazareth College in its final regular season contest on Friday night at 7 p.m. Utica has guaranteed itself a quarterfinal round bye in the ECAC West Conference Tournament and will host a semifinal game on Saturday, February 25th at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The last time the Pioneers won the ECAC West regular season title was back in 2013-14 when they finished conference play with a 10-4-1 record.

Junior defender Vince Stefan (Pittsburgh, PA/Kenai River (NAHL)) netted two first period goals to get the Pioneers started off on the right foot Saturday night.  Three other Pioneers registered at least two points on the evening.  Roman Ammirato (Williamstown, NJ/Union College (ECAC)) led UC with a career-best four assists, while Anthony McVeigh (Kemptville, Ontario/Carleton Place (CCHL)) and Dalton Carter (Toledo, OH/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) each recorded two assists.  McVeigh posted five points in two games this weekend after sparking UC to a 5-0 win at Stevenson with two goals and one assist Friday night.

Utica jumped out to a quick 3-0 first period lead behind two goals from Stefan and one from senior defender Connor Schmidt (Monroe, MI/Arizona State (D1-Ind.)). 

The Pioneers added three more goals in the first 7:27 of the second period to take a commanding 6-0 lead. Justin Derlago (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Selkirk (MJHL)) tallied his fourth goal of the season just 1:29 into the second period, while Kevin Valenti (Queensbury, NY/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) and Easton Powers (South Lyon, MI/Port Huron (NAHL)) each added a goal just 26 seconds apart to help UC earn the six goal lead.

Freshman Jarrod Fitzpatrick (Wakefield, MA/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) added his tenth goal of the season before the end of the second period to cap the scoring for Utica.

Cole Helper paced the Dutchmen with two goals on the night.

Utica's Patrik Virtanen (Vantaa, Finland/Lincoln (USHL)) earned his 12 victory of the season in net for the Pioneers, while junior Henry Dill (Columbus, OH/UMASS (Hockey East)) came on in relief and stopped seven third period shots for Utica. Virtanen stopped 17 shots and allowed one goal for Utica.

Joel Eisenhower made 25 saves for LVC, while Tyler Perhac added 10 saves.

The Pioneers out shot the home team 42-26 and also went 3-for-5 on the power-play.  Mikhail Bushinski (Woodbury, MN/Kenai River (NAHL)) and Alex Brissette (Atlanta, GA/Hampton Roads (USPHL)) each added one assist on the night for the Pioneers.