UTICA, NY – The Utica College men's hockey team rallied from a 2-0 deficit with three unanswered goals to top nationally-ranked No. 3/5 Hobart College 3-2 in ECAC West Conference action at the Utica Memorial Auditorium on Saturday night. The Pioneers have now won five in a row and snapped Hobart's 12 game unbeaten streak.

Utica improved to 10-1 in ECAC West Conference play this season and remains atop the conference standings with a four point cushion over second place Manhattanville.  Four of the Pioneers last five wins have come by just one goal, including overtime victories over Elmira on Friday night and Manhattanville last Saturday. 10 wins through 11 conference games is a new program-record for the Pioneers. Utica also improved to 15-7 overall and completed the regular season sweep of Hobart for the first time since 2012.

Hobart's record fell to 15-3-3 overall and 7-3 in ECAC West action. Prior to tonight, the last time the Statesmen lost was against Utica on Nov. 19^th at the Cooler.

Utica sophomore Shawn Lynch (Syracuse, NY/Ottawa Jr. Senators (CCHL)) netted the game-winner for Utica with 7:50 to go in the contest.  Hobart gave the puck away in their own zone and UC capitalized as Jarrod Fitzpatrick (Wakefield, MA/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) forced the puck out front to junior forward Kevin Valenti (Queensbury, NY/Northern Cyclones (EHL)). Valenti then slid a pass over to a streaking Lynch who beat Frank Oplinger blocker side to give UC a 3-2 lead.

The Pioneers fell into an early 2-0 hole as Hobart netted a first period goal from Vincent Russo and then took the two goal lead early in the second period after Jonas Toupal netted his eighth goal of the season.

Utica leading scorer Roman Ammirato (Williamstown, NJ/Union College (ECAC)) started the Pioneer rally with a highlight reel power-play goal.  Ammirato was taken to the ice by a Hobart hooking penalty but managed to rifle a shot on net that beat Oplinger over his left shoulder to make the score 2-1 with 3:18 left in the second. Dalton Carter (Toledo, OH/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) and Alex Brissette (Atlanta, GA/Hampton Roads (USPHL)) each registered an assist on Ammirato's 11^th goal of the season.

UC then knotted the score at 2-2 with 1:23 left in the second period.  Jarrod Fitzpatrick (Wakefield, MA/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) got the game-tying goal for UC, assisted by Connor Schmidt (Monroe, MI/Arizona State (D1-Ind.)) and Anthony McVeigh (Kemptville, Ontario/Carleton Place (CCHL)). Fitzpatrick finished the night with one goal and one assist. He also netted a key goal in Friday night's 2-1 overtime win against Elmira.

Utica freshman goalie Patrik Virtanen (Vantaa, Finland/Lincoln (USHL)) stopped 30 shots as he won his tenth game of the season.  The Pioneers also held Hobart to an 0-for-5 effort on the power-play, while adding two power-play goals of their own. UC came away with a 34-32 shot advantage on the evening.

Frank Oplinger made 31 stops in net for the visitors.

The last time Utica won 15 or more games was back in 2013-14 when they finished the year with a 16-7-4 overall record and won the ECAC Men's West regular season title.

Utica will hit the road on Friday when they travel to Stevenson University for conference action against the Mustangs at 7 p.m. On Saturday Utica will travel to Lebanon Valley before returning home on February 17^th to take on Nazareth in the regular season finale at the Aud.