UTICA, NY - The No. 3 Utica College men's ice hockey team took its first vitally important step towards capturing the UCHC Tournament championship on Saturday. Locked into a 2-2 game early in the third period, the top-seeded Pioneers bolted ahead with three goals in the final frame as they dropped fifth-seeded Nazareth by a 5-2 score in the first game of a UCHC semifinal series at the Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.

Utica leads the series one game to zero, and advances to the championship with a win or tie on Sunday. Nazareth needs a victory to force the series into a decisive minigame. Game two is set for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Aud. Tickets are still available. 

The Pioneers set a program record for wins in a season with the win, as they improve to 22-2-2 overall this season. They surpassed the 2012-13 and 2017-18 editions of the Pioneers, who each won 21 games. The win is also UC's seventeenth straight.

John Moncovich (Wilmington, NC/Hampton Roads Whalers (USPHL)) led the way for the Pioneers with a two goal outing, while Dante Zapata (Huntington Beach, CA/Austin Bruins (NAHL)), Daniel Fritz (Harwood, MD/Canisius College (Atlantic Hockey)), and Conor Landrigan (New Tripoli, PA/Binghamton Jr. Sens (NAHL)) each had a goal apiece. Brandon Osmundson (Chesapeake, VA/Hampton Roads Whalers (USPHL)) had three assists to become just the second UC rookie ever to hit 40 points in a season.

Gianluca Baggetta (Maple, Ontario/North York (OJHL)) stopped 23 of 25 shots to pick up the win in a fourteenth straight decision.

The Pioneers outshot the Golden Flyers 42-25 as they snagged a third win this season at the expense of Nazareth. The team also established leverage on the power play with a 2-for-4 effort on the man advantage, while holding Nazareth to 1-for-2 on the power play.

The game opened with Utica outshooting Nazareth in the opening 20 minutes by an 18-6 margin, but quality chances for either side were hard to come by for much of the period. The Pioneers saw an opening to achieve the early lead just past the midpoint of the period, when Naz's Henry McKinney was ticketed for holding at 11:10. Just under a minute later, rookie sensation Dante Zapata (Huntington Beach, CA/Austin Bruins (NAHL)) chipped a power play rebound past Nazareth netminder Michael Tilford for a 1-0 lead that held to the end of the opening stanza. Donovan Ott (Lebanon, PA/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (ECAC Hockey)) and Conor Landrigan (New Tripoli, PA/Binghamton Jr. Sens (NAHL)) scooped up the assists on the play.

The Golden Flyers found retribution in the second period on a power play strike of their very own. After Daniel Fritz (Harwood, MD/Canisius College (Atlantic Hockey)) took a rare penalty for tripping, Zander Pryor turned it into a tie game with a wraparound goal at 6:33. The goal was unassisted.

The end of the second period brought a great deal of calamity, and an eventual Pioneer lead. In the waning moments of the frame, UC had a prospective goal disallowed on a long shot by Daniel Fritz (Harwood, MD/Canisius College (Atlantic Hockey)).

After the disallowed tally, the Pioneers regained focus quickly. They ran one of their cleanest faceoff plays of the entire season to re-establish the lead right before the second period buzzer. Junior forward Kasper Kjellkvist (Vaxjo, Sweden/Curry College (Commonwealth Coast Conf.)) won the faceoff on a straight ahead drive, and gathered the puck before the right post. Landrigan jumped to the low slot from the left wing, and Kjellkvist presented a perfect pass for Landrigan to chip the puck past Tilford for a 2-1 lead at the end of 40 minutes.

Nazareth re-tied the score at two goals early in the third on Michael Houlihan's second career goal. The goal was an even strength tally at 5:42.

With a tie game on the table, UC's contingent of Hampton Roads Whalers alumni rapidly set to work at turning the tide back in Utica's favor permanently. 26 seconds after the Houlihan tally, the Pioneers launched an incisive counterattack on the rush. Brandon Osmundson (Chesapeake, VA/Hampton Roads Whalers (USPHL)) got the puck out to the wing to defenseman Vaden McManus (Fayetteville, NC/Hampton Roads (USPHL)), who jumped up into the rush. McManus in turn fed John Moncovich (Wilmington, NC/Hampton Roads Whalers (USPHL)), who knocked the puck behind Tilford for the eventual game-winning goal and a 3-2 score.

Osmundson provided the assists on a pair of insurance goals to further put the Golden Flyers in the rear view mirror. After a net front scuffle and a goaltender interference minor led to a Utica power play, Fritz lasered the puck home for his eighth power play goal of the season and his 80th career point. Osmundson and Landrigan had the assists.

Moncovich scored his second goal of the day to round out the scoring at 13:45, and Utica coasted to victory from that point forward as they polished off a 5-2 win.

The winner of this UCHC semifinal series will take on second-seeded Wilkes University for the title. The Colonels prevailed in the minigame in the other semifinal against Stevenson.