UTICA, NY - Starting this weekend, the #2 ranked Pioneers will officially begin the Rückrunde (german for back lap) of their UCHC campaign, welcoming their first repeat conference opponent of the season to the Adirondack Bank Center on Thursday to open this weekend's double with an early-week tilt. Nazareth will be the opponent, with the Golden Flyers presenting a much different challenge than they did earlier this season, as will be discussed below. Thursday will see the two teams face off in Utica before they undergo a hockey-free Friday followed by the back end of the double on Saturday in Rochester. Thursday's throwdown will begin at 7:00, while Saturday's showcase will start a little earlier at 5:30.
 
How to Watch the UCHC Series vs Nazareth: You can watch this weekend's matchups by heading to the links below or by clicking the "Watch" link under each contest on our men's hockey schedule page.
Stream link for Thursday's game in Utica: https://www.empire8network.com/utica/
Stream link for Saturday's game at Nazareth: https://www.empire8network.com/nazareth/
 
Keep Up with Live Stats: You can follow along with live statistics for the games by heading to the "Live Stats" tab under the matchups in the Men's Ice Hockey schedule section of our athletics website. You can also follow the links below to view live statistics for this weekend's two-game slate.
Live stat link for Thursday's game in Utica: https://uticapioneers.com/sidearmstats/mhockey/summary
 Live stat link for Saturday's game at Nazareth: https://nazathletics.com/sidearmstats/mhockey/summary
 
Vanquishing the Valiants: The Pioneers ventured back into the UCHC realm this past weekend when they met Manhattanville in a Friday-Saturday doubleheader. During Friday's matchup, the Mohawk Valley men sped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to scores from some experienced attackers including Johnny Mulera (Rockville, MD/Salve Regina University (NCAA DIII)) and Eric Vitale (Toronto, ON/Shreveport Mudbugs (NAHL)), as well as a first collegiate score from freshman Anthony Cafarelli (Middleton, MA/Oklahoma Warriors (NAHL)). The 3-goal cushion proved to be enough, as the Pioneers weathered a late surge by the Valiants to take Friday's matchup at the Playland Ice Casino by a 3-2 score. On Saturday, now back at the Adirondack Bank Center, the Pioneers once again emerged victorious in a tight affair, securing a 1-0 win over Manhattanville and finishing a sweep in the first of two series between the two New York teams. Mulera scored once again in the second game to register the game winning and singular score, finding net from the exact same spot and in the exact same fashion as he did the night before. The graduate player tormented the Valiants on the power play all weekend, scoring his two goals on the advantage and almost notching a few more due to his signature slapshot from the left side. In Saturday's showdown, the hosts also completed a 60-minute defensive showcase spearheaded by their sudden savior in goal…
 
Pushin' P: New Pioneer goaltender Ryan Piros (Hartland, MI/University of Dubuque (NCAA DIII)) had himself a superb weekend in his first UCHC series with the new squad. The freshman phenom spent the entirety of both weekend contests in goal for the U-clad Pioneers, shutting out the Valiants for five complete periods of hockey. Save for the final period of Saturday's matchup, Manhattanville was held scoreless for 100 minutes in the two-game set, including enduring a shutout in the second matchup. Over two games this past weekend, Piros made 56 total saves, stopping shots at a 96.6% rate while only allowing two goals for a 1.0 goals allowed average. The Michigan man's stunning stats along with his two wins were enough to earn him double the recognition this week, as he took home both the UCHC and Empire 8 Goalie of the Week Awards, the conference announced on Monday. The awards were Piros' first as a Pioneer and came just three games into his tenure with the team. The New York newcomer has featured in net during all three of the Pioneers matchups since his arrival after the turn of the new year. In the three outings, Piros has played all 180 minutes of possible gametime, racking up 81 total saves while knocking down shots at a 94.1% rate. Piros has allowed just five goals over the three games, sporting a 1.67 goals allowed average while picking up three wins during his run to this point. The rookie will look to continue this form as his Pioneers dive into the heart of conference play. Speaking of the UCHC, let's take a look at how last weekend's action affected the conference standings.
 
Catching up with Conference Play: Here are the UCHC standings following last weekend's full slate of conference matchups.
 
1: Geneseo | 27 points | 13-1-1 (9-0-1 UCHC)
2: Utica | 26 points | 12-2-1 (8-1-1 UCHC)
3: Chatham | 11 points 4-10-1 (3-6-1 UCHC)
4: Nazareth | 11 points | 6-7-2 (2-6-2 UCHC)
5: Manhattanville | 10 points | 4-10-1 (3-6-1 UCHC)
6: Brockport | 2 points | 4-9-2 (2-8-0 UCHC)
 
The other two UCHC series of this past weekend saw Chatham travel to Brockport while Geneseo and Nazareth alternated home games. In the two matchups that pitted the Cougars against the Golden Eagles, each side claimed a contest, with Chatham dominating the Friday tilt by a lopsided score of 5-0 and Brockport bouncing back to defeat Chatham by a 6-3 final on Saturday.
 
It was the other series though, that contained the weekend's most interesting development. On Friday at the Time Horton's Iceplex, a surging Nazareth squad took on the #3 ranked Knights to begin their first of four matchups to be played this season. In the UCHC battle, Geneseo took an early 3-1 lead into the first intermission, looking to rebound from their first defeat of the season which came at the hands of Elmira the week before. For a battle-tested Golden Flyer group, there was plenty of time to sneak back into the matchup, which they did in major fashion, scoring two goals in the second period and not allowing the Knights to score over the final 40 minutes to send the game to overtime tied at three apiece. Geneseo would quickly end the extra period, scoring almost exactly one minute into the overtime period, however, even though Geneseo won the conference still saw a minor shift due to the UCHC standings rules.
 
In conference play, overtime wins count for less points, with each overtime winner receiving just two points for victory instead of three. Because of this, and the Knights' overtime outing with the Golden Flyers, the Pioneers managed to inch closer to tying the Knights atop the conference. Despite besting the Pioneers on Teddy Bear Toss night back in December, the Knights found themselves just one point ahead of the orange and blue in the standings, with their fallbacks coming at the hands of the Pioneers, who won a penalty shootout at the Ira over in the Genesee Valley, and now Nazareth, who cost them some more position thanks to dragging them into an overtime period. All-in-all though, the regular season may very well still boil down to who comes out victorious in the next pair of meetings between Utica and Geneseo, two teams who maintained their high-ranking position in both of this week's polls…
 
In the Polls: The top three teams in this week's UCHC Division III Men's Hockey poll continued their reign, with Hobart, Utica, and Geneseo all remaining stagnant at #1, #2, and #3 respectively. The same rang true for the DIII Hockey News poll, with New York's hold on the top three spots in the Division III rankings continuing due to the top three's sustained success so far this season.
 
Nothing else of note occurred during this week's rankings release, with former opponents Adrian and University of New England standing pat at #7 and #12 respectively in the USCHO poll. Former opponent Oswego also continued to receive the most votes of anyone outside the top 15, sitting one spot outside the rankings.
 
Knowing Nazareth: The Golden Flyers have undergone a gauntlet since their last meeting with the Pioneers, facing a string of five-straight ranked or vote-receiving teams entering this week's UCHC series. Nazareth has picked up some signature victories over the past couple months, evolving beyond the team they were in November with victories against currently #9 ranked Hamilton (4-2) and on the road against currently #15 ranked Cortland (5-4). In addition, the Golden Flyers were also extremely competitive in two of their last three contests, losing a tough bout to Oswego (2-4) before falling to Geneseo in overtime (3-4) this past weekend. Midway through that line of extremely tough opponents, Nazareth was on the verge of breaking into the top 15 rankings, with the loss to Oswego halting their momentum and causing them to fall out of the poll picture. Regardless, this Golden Flyer group is a battle tested one, with the team facing eight ranked or previously ranked opponents over the course of the season so far.
 
While the aura surrounding the team is completely different from the energy they expressed back in November during their initial series with the Pioneers, the skaters remain the same, with similar players standing atop their team statistical categories.
 
The Golden Flyers' lead man is the West Seneca native Logan Tobias. The junior forward leads the team in both goals and assists, with Tobias being three goals clear of the next closest Nazareth scorer. Tobias is also Nazareth's first look on the advantage, with the 19-point man possessing three power play goals this season to lead the Golden Flyers.
 
Nazareth's second-best attacker is the senior forward Anthony Quinlivan, with the Massachusetts native owning six goals and two assists this season. Quinlivan prefers to play his best games against the best competition, with five of his six goals coming against ranked opponents including netting two on the road at Cortland.
 
Will Halecki has four goals this season to complete the trio of top-scorers for the Golden Flyers, while four other players including the other Quinlivan, Liam, each have three goals to round out the notable scoring for Nazareth.
 
One of those three goal scorers also slots in as the Golden Flyers second-best playmaker behind Tobias, with Blake Frost holding eight assists on the season. Frost has also netted three goals, placing him second on the team in total points at 11. The Golden Flyers' other top apple-seekers are Joey Schaefer and Josh Dressler who each have seven assists during the campaign so far.
 
Nazareth has featured three goaltenders in net throughout the season, with two of their netminders appearing in seven games and the third seeing the goal in five games.
 
Dylan Wiemer is the main Golden Flyers goal guardian, starting seven games in his first season for Nazareth after transferring from Brockport during this past offseason. Wiemer has a 2.77 goals allowed average along with 177 total saves, saving attempts at a 90.8% rate. He's 4-3 on the year, with one of those losses coming at the hands of the Pioneers, who netted five scores against the graduate goaltender before his exit at the midway point of the first matchup on November 8th.
 
Lincoln Crosby has seen the second most time in net, spending just 65 less minutes in net than Wiemer in the 24-25 season. Crosby has a 3.32 goals allowed average, but has seen that number inflate thanks to an unfortunate nine goals allowed against the power play. Crosby has stopped 150 total shots, saving attempts at an 89.3% rate. The sophomore from Maryland has a record of 2-2-1 on the season and played the entire third period against the Pioneers during the second game of their initial UCHC series, allowing one goal and making 19 saves.
 
Coincidentally, the netminder who saw the most minutes against the Pioneers earlier this season is the Golden Flyer goaltender with the least amount of ice time in Matt Sayles. The Georgia native played over 30 minutes in both contests against the Pioneers back in November, playing the final 30 minutes on the 8th and getting the start in the 9th before being taken out towards the end of the second period. For the rest of the season, Sayles sports a 5.59 goals allowed average, along with 84 saves and an 82.4% save percentage.
 
It remains to be seen who the Pioneers will see this week, but they'll have some experience against whichever Nazareth goaltender gets the nod.
 
George Roll is at the helm for the Golden Flyers and will undergo his final two regular season tests against the Pioneers before he steps away after this season. Following the 2024-25 season, Roll will leave the program which he helped create, as he's been Nazareth's only head coach since the program's inception in 2012.
 
After Completing the Season Series Against Nazareth: The Pioneers will take on the other UCHC team north of the thruway, battling Brockport in a two-game set to end January and begin February. On Friday, January 31st, the Pioneers will wander to the Wegmans Ice Arena once again, facing the Golden Eagles in enemy territory. The next night, on February 1st, Utica will head home to the Adirondack Bank Center for the fourth and final regular season matchup with Brockport. Both games start at 7:00 PM with the Saturday matchup being sponsored by Hamilton Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine.
 
We'll see you on Thursday night as the Pioneers welcome Nazareth!