Utica, N.Y. (1/7/2011) – 14 of the Pioneers 18 skaters tallied at least one point as the nationally-ranked No. 13 Utica College men’s hockey team defeated visiting Curry College 5-2 in front of 2,405 fans at the Utica Memorial Auditorium Friday night. The Pioneers jumped out to a 4-1 lead over the course of the first two periods and never looked back as they improved their record to 10-4 on the year.
Utica – coming off nearly a month long semester break – has now won five of its last six games and snapped a three game losing streak to Curry dating back to Dec. 8, 2008. The visiting Colonels, who won four straight games midway through the first half of the season, have now lost two of their last three and dropped their record to 5-4-2 on the year.
Sophomore forward Eric Peterson gave Utica a 1-0 lead just 5:10 into the contest to account for the lone goal of the first period. Freshman Chris Santiago and senior assistant captain Sean Timkey assisted on Peterson’s fourth goal of the season.
Curry tied the game up 3:05 into the second stanza when sophomore forward Ian DeLong registered his first goal of the season off an assist from junior forward Christopher Atkinson.
Utica responded with three straight goals to close out the second period scoring as the Pioneers took a commanding 4-1 lead into the third and final period. Freshman defender Mike Slowikowski netted his first collegiate goal midway through the second period, while junior captain Tim Coffman added the eventual game-winner at the 15:55 mark. Freshman Trever Hertz got in on the action with his sixth goal of the season, on the power-play, with just two seconds to go in the second period.
Each team netted one goal in the final 20 minutes as the contest came to a close with the Pioneers ahead by three goals. Junior forward Payden Benning made the game interesting when he lit the lamp for his team-best eighth time this season 8:47 into the final period. DeLong, who went on to earn third star honors, assisted on the Colonels second goal of the night.
Freshman Jon Gaffney added an insurance goal, shorthanded, for the Pioneers midway through the third period to wrap of the scoring for Utica. Sophomore defender Roberts Etts finished the night with a team-high two assists.
Freshman goalie Evan Smith stopped 25 shots as he earned his sixth win of the season for Utica. Sophomore Robert Dawson stopped 33 shots in his sixth appearance of the season for Curry.
The contest featured 22 penalties for a total of 64 minutes. The Pioneers went 2-for-6 on the power-play and outshot the visitors 38-27 on the evening.
Utica returns to its home ice Saturday for game two of Friday-Saturday double header, this time against Cortland State, at 7 p.m. Curry will make the brief trek West on the Interstate to take on nationally-ranked No. 2 Oswego State Saturday night at 7 p.m.
(Release Courtesy of Utica Sports Information)