UTICA, NY - The No. 2 Utica University men's hockey team wrapped up its final regular season matchup with a 5-3 win over Arcadia on Saturday afternoon.
Shane Murphy (Oriskany, NY/Danbury Hat Tricks (NAHL)) kept impressing as of late, registering three goals for his second hat-trick of the season.
John Gutt (Middletown, NJ/Utica JR Comets (NCDC)) (1g, 3a),
Matt Wood (Garnet Valley, PA/Richmond Generals (USPHL)) (0g, 2a) and
Brian Scoville (Agawam, MA/Alabama-Huntsville (NCAA DI)) (0g, 3a) had multi-point games of their own.
Gabriel Lundberg (Gothenburg, Sweden/Janesville Jets (NAHL)) (1g, 0a),
Aydin Parekh (Nobleton, ON/Georgetown Raiders (OJHL)) (0g, 1a) and
Andrew Della Rovere (Caledon East, ON/Georgetown Raiders (OJHL)) (0g, 1a) each registered a point.
Bryan Landsberger (Montreal, Quebec/Nepean Raiders (CCHL)) started in net for Utica for the second-straight game and posted his ninth win while registering 20 saves.
The first period went scoreless for the first 14 minutes of action until Arcadia's Donnie Feldman capitalized on a power play, giving the Knights a 1-0 lead. Feldman was assisted by Jared Shuter and Brendan Dicker. With 3:53 left in the period, Utica evened the score at one apiece after Della Rovere and Scoville assisted Lundberg who scored his second goal of the 2023-24 season. The first period would conclude at 1-1.
It was an eventful second period as five goals were scored between Arcadia and Utica. The line of
Shane Murphy (Oriskany, NY/Danbury Hat Tricks (NAHL)),
John Gutt (Middletown, NJ/Utica JR Comets (NCDC)) and
Matt Wood (Garnet Valley, PA/Richmond Generals (USPHL)) has been on fire as of late. The trio accounted for three goals in the second period and combined for four points. Murphy got the scoring started in the second for Utica with 1:51 into the period. Gutt and Wood connected with Murphy to give Utica a 2-1 advantage. Nine minutes later, Arcadia's Bryce Battaglia found the back of the net off a beautiful feed from Josh German and Jack Quigley to notch the game at 2-2. Shortly after,
Utica would go up 3-2 after Gutt connected with Murphy with 13:08 left in the second. Three minutes later, Arcadia struck back as Aaron Hamel tied the game at three goals apiece. The scoring was not done yet; with just under two minutes to play Gutt would score and collect another point, as he is currently on an eight-game point streak. Utica would head into the third period up 4-3.
Not much action played out in the third period. With 37 seconds left, Murphy scored an empty netter, collecting his second hat-trick of the season which ultimately put Arcadia away. Utica would go onto win its final regular season game 5-3.
Utica (20-2-3, 19-0-1 UCHC) will host the first round of the UCHC Quarterfinals on Wednesday, February 21 at 7 p.m. Opponent is TBD.
