Box Score

Utica, N.Y. – The Utica College men's hockey team defeated visiting Nichols College 7-3 in front of 3,012 fans at the Utica Memorial Auditorium Saturday night.  UC improves to 9-5 overall with the win, while the Bison drop to 9-3-1 overall.            

The Pioneers got on the board just 1:40 into the contest when Vincent Nucci (Rochester, NY/Capital District Selects) connected with a streaking Sean Timkey (Rochester, NY/Capital District Selects) at the blue.  Timkey skated in all alone, made a deek to the left and beat Nichols goalie Keith Fink top right shelf.  The goal marked the first of Timkey's collegiate career and Nucci notched his third assist of the season. 

Nichols answered back at 9:54 after UC goalie Adam Dekker (Muskegon, MI/Soo Indians) misplayed a loose puck, which was eventually stolen by junior Anthony Monte (Chicago, Ill./Chicago Force).  Monte stole the puck in the corner and beat Dekker back to the net for the easy top shelf goal.  The unassisted goal tied the game up at 1-1.  Monte leads Nichols with 25 points this season on ten goals and 15 assists. 

The Pioneers took the lead back for good 42 seconds into the second period when junior forward TJ Schneider (Spring City, PA/La Ronge Ice Wolves) netted his second goal of the season between the legs of Fink.  The unassisted goal gave the Pioneers a 2-1 lead that they would not relinquish. 

UC went on to score two more second period goals, including senior assistant captain Tony Wiseman's (White Lake, MI/Cleveland) first goal of the season on a rebound with less than three minutes to go in the period.  Junior captain Bryce Dale (Fresno, CA/Williams Lake) followed Wiseman's goal with a beautiful one-timer slap shot goal 15:34 into the second period.  Dale's goal was set up by freshman forward Nick Kulas (Parma, MI/North Bay) and Schneider, marking their fourth and second assists of the season, respectively. 

The Pioneers tacked on three more third period goals in the first ten minutes of the final stanza.  Senior assistant captain Joe Watson (St. Louis, MO/Toldeo) scored from the point, Kulas added his fifth goal of the season and Matt Fitzgibbons (Natick, MA/Boston Jr. Bruins) gathered his own rebound and netted his third goal of the season. 

Release courtesy of Utica Sports Information