UTICA, NY - The nationally ranked Utica College men's ice hockey team continues its challenging January schedule this weekend. The squad dives back into United Collegiate Hockey Conference play with a road weekend in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The No. 6 Pioneers see their fourth straight game against a ranked opponent on Friday as they take on first place and current No. 12 Wilkes University at 5 p.m. Utica stays in the area the following day to take on King's College at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Follow Along: Live video and stats will be made available for the contests this weekend courtesy of the Athletic Communications offices at King's College and Wilkes University.

The Pennsylvania Polka: The Pioneers are 6-0 all-time against this weekend's opponents, with Utica standing at 4-0 against King's, and 2-0 against Wilkes. UC is 2-0-1 against opposition based in Pennsylvania this season, and have not lost in their last seven appearances against teams from the Keystone State.

Last Time Out: UC built and lost a 3-0 lead to their hosts, but Conor Landrigan (New Tripoli, PA/Binghamton Jr. Sens (NAHL)) scored his second goal of the night with 1:52 left to put a huge regional rivalry game on ice as Utica derailed No. 15 Oswego by a 4-3 score on Friday. Kasper Kjellkvist (Vaxjo, Sweden/Curry College (Commonwealth Coast Conf.)) and Eric Holland (Whitby, ON/Brockville Braves (CCHL)) also added goals for Utica, while Brandon Osmundson (Chesapeake, VA/Hampton Roads Whalers (USPHL)) had two assists. Gianluca Baggetta (Maple, Ontario/North York (OJHL)) had 29 saves for his fifth victory of the season.

Where We Stand: No. 6 Utica stands at 10-2-2 with eleven games to go in the regular season. They have won five straight games, and are also 5-0 against teams ranked at the time of the contest. They achieved their highest national ranking of the season, and their best since the beginning of last season, in the latest USCHO Poll released on Monday. They finish their non-conference slate undefeated at 6-0-1, and will become the first team in the history of the men's hockey program to finish the regular season undefeated out of conference. In UCHC play, the team stands in fourth with a 4-2-1 conference record and thirteen conference points.

On The Road Again: The Pioneers are 6-1 in road games this season, and 12-5-1 in total over the past two seasons in true road games. Utica is averaging 5.57 goals per game when playing away from home this year, and are outscoring opponents 39-24 in their own buildings.

In Good Company: The Pioneers accomplished the rare feat of sweeping Adrian recently to open the 2020 calendar year. In doing so, Utica became just the fourth team ever to sweep the Bulldogs with two wins in a weekend, and the first team ever from the East region to pull it off against the consistently strong Bulldog program. Five teams have now done it after Milwaukee School of Engineering pulled off a conference sweep this past weekend. Utica is in great company amongst its recent predecessors to accomplish that feat. The 2016-17 St. Norbert Green Knights, and the 2017-18 UW-Stevens Point Pointers both advanced to the national semifinals after sweeping Adrian earlier in the season. In the year following their sweep, both of those teams won the national title.

Movin On Up: Since returning from injury to start 2020, Baggetta has been moving up the college's goaltending record books fairly quickly. Since the calendar shifted to the new year, Baggetta became just the third goaltender in school history to eclipse 25 career wins, and now stands third in program history with 27. He also moved into fourth in school history in career saves and needs just 33 more to become the fourth goaltender in school history to reach 1,000 career saves, and the first since assistant coach Nick Therrien. This season, Baggetta is 5-1-2 in eight appearances and carries a 2.80 goals against average and a 90.7 percent save percentage. He has won four straight games.

A Milestone Moment: When Kasper Kjellkvist (Vaxjo, Sweden/Curry College (Commonwealth Coast Conf.)) scored his goal in Friday's game, he surpassed a significant career milestone. The goal was the 50th point of his collegiate career. This season, he ranks third on the team with thirteen points on seven goals and six assists. That total adds on the 37 points he recorded in two seasons at Curry College before transferring to Utica.

Fritz Fits: Senior defenseman Daniel Fritz (Harwood, MD/Canisius College (Atlantic Hockey)) stands at 57 career points. He needs just three more to become the third defenseman in school history to hit 60 points in a career, and six more to tie Zach Borsoi (Brossard, Quebec/Gloucester (CCHL)) for the second most points by a defenseman in program history. He has four goals and ten assists for fourteen points this year.

A Marquee Battle: Friday's game will feature two of the nation's highest scoring players, and the highest scoring players in their respective classes nationally. Utica rookie Brandon Osmundson (Chesapeake, VA/Hampton Roads Whalers (USPHL)) leads the nation's freshmen in points per game at 1.71 points per game. He is seventh overall nationally in that category. Osmundson has ten goals and fourteen assists for a team-leading 24 points. He has done it all in his first fourteen games, and is on a three game point streak to begin the 2020 calendar. On the opposing side, Wilkes sophomore Donald Flynn presently leads the nation in points per game. He has sixteen goals and thirteen assists to lead the Colonels. The pair chair up two high powered offenses that rank in the top ten nationally.

The Landy Man Can: Junior forward Conor Landrigan (New Tripoli, PA/Binghamton Jr. Sens (NAHL)) hasn't missed a beat since missing a large chunk of the first half of the season due to injury. In the three games since his return, he has five points on three goals and two assists, including the game-winning goal against Oswego. He was named the United Collegiate Hockey Conference Player of the Week on Tuesday. Landrigan has only appeared in seven games, but has five multi-point games to his credit and could outpace his point total from last year despite missing half a season to this point.

The Iron Men: Just six Pioneers have played in every game this season as Utica exercises a great deal of flexibility in the lineup. Osmundson, Fritz, Kjellkvist, Donovan Ott (Lebanon, PA/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (ECAC Hockey)), Justin Allen (Rochester, NY/Rochester Monarchs (USPHL-NCDC)), and Jacob Cuffley (Kanata, ON/Smiths Falls Bears (CCHL)) are the players that comprise that select group.

About Wilkes: The No. 12 Colonels are off to a flying start in their second year as a program. Wilkes is 11-3-0, and 7-0 in United Collegiate Hockey Conference play to stand in first place. The Colonels are fresh off a 6-5 overtime loss to Cortland on Tuesday. They are fourth in the nation in scoring offense at 4.71 goals per game, led by the efforts of Flynn. Flynn's sophomore classmates Nick Fea and Tyler Barrow are also a challenge to contain, as Fea ranks twelfth nationally in points per game, and Barrow is close behind in 23rd as of Tuesday. The Wilkes power play is eighth in the nation at 28.4 percent. Brandon Gordon and Baldwinsville, NY native Michael Paterson-Jones have divided minutes in goal for Wilkes.

About King's: The Monarchs are 2-11, and 1-6 in the United Collegiate Hockey Conference this season. Rookie Tommy Cahill has fifteen points on seven goals and eight assists to lead King's, while sophomores Michael DiSchiavi and Alex Acosta rank in the second and third spots on the team in total points. Goaltenders Tyler Sayger and Brandon Daigle have split time in goal for the Monarchs. King's is coached by Syracuse native Stephen Mallaro.

Up Next: The Pioneers make their anticipated return to the Aud next weekend as they battle Neumann and Manhattanville on Saturday, January 25th and Sunday, January 26th.