UTICA, NY - The Utica University men's ice hockey team welcomed some of the best and brightest American-born talent destined for the 2024 NHL Draft Class on Friday, October 20th. Highly-touted prospect Cole Eiserman had a hat trick as the United States National Team Development Program's Under-18 team defeated the Pioneers by a 7-1 score in a preseason exhibition at the Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.

The NTDP takes a 4-3 all-time lead in meetings against the Pioneers with Friday's result, and improves to 7-4 overall this season. This spirited exhibition series has featured the likes of NHL stars like Jack Eichel, Dylan Larkin, Alex Tuch, Bryan Rust, and K'Andre Miller, among others, and several of Friday's visiting players could follow in their footsteps in the NHL soon. 

This was Utica's lone exhibition game, with their sights now set on a huge opening weekend twinbill against Adrian College on Friday, October 27th and Saturday, October 28th.

The matchup was a fair bit closer than the score indicated in some respects, with the Pioneers playing a strong second period and delivering an even performance in shots (38-38) and faceoffs (27-27).

Still, it was the visitors who came out of the gate firing with a three-goal first period. Boston College commit Teddy Stiga opened the scoring at 4:27 for Team USA, and Eiserman doubled up the lead less than 30 seconds later at 4:56. Denver commit Brendan McMorrow rounded out the first period scoring as the NTDP led 3-0 after one period of play.

After a slow start, the second period was much stronger for Utica. Fueled by three second period power play chances, the Pioneers out-shot the visitors 16-12 and kept the national team off the board for the final nineteen minutes of the frame after Brodie Ziemer extended the visitors' lead to 4-0 in the opening minute of play. Utica began to chain together quality chances, but sixteen second period saves by Notre Dame-bound netminder Nick Kempf kept them off the board.

Eiserman padded the lead with two third period goals, and Michigan-bound forward Christian Humphreys added one of his own before the Pioneers broke through with a late goal. John Gutt (Middletown, NJ/Utica JR Comets (NCDC)) connected with Eric Vitale (Toronto, ON/Shreveport Mudbugs (NAHL)) on the rush for Vitale's first goal in a Pioneer uniform at 18:09 of the third, and that put the final piece in place on a 7-1 final score.

Behind Eiserman's hat trick, Brodie Ziemer had a great night with a goal and two assists, while Teddy Stiga and Christian Humphreys also had multi-point nights.

Drake Morse (Grand Rapids, MI/Shreveport Mudbugs (NAHL)) led Utica with seven shots on goal. Jakob Breault (Acton Vale, QC/Alaska-Fairbanks (NCAA DI)) won thirteen out of a possible twenty one faceoffs.

In net, Kempf stopped 37 of 38 shots to earn the win, while Ethan Roberts (Cary, NC/University of St. Thomas (NCAA DI)) and Bryan Landsberger (Montreal, Quebec/Nepean Raiders (CCHL)) combined for 31 saves in the loss.