PINE VALLEY, NY – Junior Casey Kubara scored a pair of goals and added an assist to lead the Nazareth College men's hockey team to a 5-2 victory over Elmira Tuesday in the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) Tournament as the Golden Flyers advanced to play either Wilkes or Utica in the semifinal round of the tournament.

The semifinal round would start Friday if Nazareth matches up with Wilkes and Saturday if the Golden Flyers match up against Utica. The semifinal round is a miniseries with games on consecutive days and a possible third, mini-game on the second day if necessary. Nazareth needs to wait until the results of a second first round game between Stevenson and Neumann Wednesday night. If Stevenson wins, Nazareth will face Utica and if Neumann wins, the Golden Flyers will take on Wilkes.

Against Elmira Tuesday, sophomore Cole Moore opened the scoring in the first period and goals by junior Ray Falso and Kubara in the second period gave Nazareth a comfortable 3-0 lead.

The Golden Flyers were 10-1 when leading after two periods of play heading into the game and senior Michael Tilford made 21 saves including 17 in the second period to keep the lead.

Elmira answered early in the third period with a pair of goals in the first 3:29 to trim the lead to 3-2.

Both teams had scoring chances through the middle of the period but it was a goal by senior James McDonald at the 17:37 mark to give Nazareth a 4-2 lead. The goal was the 34th of his career and ties the school record for career goals at Nazareth.

Kubara assisted on the McDonald goal and then put the game away with an empty-net goal with 23 seconds remaining to secure the win.

Tilford finished with 34 saves and won his eighth game of the season.