PITTSBURGH, PA - Less than a day after engaging in an exhausting overtime affair with the surging Chatham Cougars, the No. 2 Utica Pioneers were back out on the ice looking for a statement victory to sweep Friday's minor setback under the rug. After picking up a tie the night before, the Pioneers left absolutely no doubt in Saturday afternoon's season finale, stumping the Cougars by a 6-2 score and squashing any hopes of a true Chatham upset on the weekend.
Drake Morse led the charge for the navy-clad group, getting two goals to pave the way for the Pioneers in their bounce back win. Morse broke the ice with a shot from an impossible angle to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead in the first period. He then scored again to lead off the third period, shooting the Pioneers out to a 4-1 lead with about 15 minutes remaining.
The remaining four goals were each netted by a different attacker, as Collin Patterson, Andrew Della Rovere, Aydin Parekh, and Gabriel Lundberg drew twine to round out the scoring in the team's six goal outburst.
For Parekh, his power play score in the third period also registered as his first goal of the season, a big breakthrough for the defensemen who'd already added 17 total assists but had yet to notch a goal in the campaign.
Patterson's first period score was also quite significant, as the Utica newcomer grabbed his first goal in a Pioneer uniform. Patterson came to the Pioneers with a plethora of points in his short collegiate career, and the Saturday score hopes to be the first of many for the sophomore skater.
The visitors racked up a solid number of assists in the matchup as well, with Johnny Mulera and Eric Vitale each adding two apples on the scoresheet. Jakob Breault, Alexander Gullichsen, and Brian Scoville each added a single playmaker.
Utica attacked with a vengeance from the very beginning of the contest, doubling up their opponent in the shot category as they fired off 56 total attempts compared to just 20 by Chatham. They also captured 52 of the 81 total faceoff attempts for a 64% faceoff win rate.
Parekh's score came on the only converted power play of the afternoon for the Pioneers. The UCHC's premier player-up unit saw five opportunities on the advantage in Saturday's slugfest, only managing to slot away one.
Slugfest is also how one could describe the vibe of the showdown, as both teams traded misconducts, roughings, and all other manner of infractions in one of the hardest hitting games to date by both teams. The air in the arena was tense, with both squads looking to make a statement through their fast and physical play. The resulting tension bore many a whistle from the officials, as the two teams racked up an absurd 142 minutes of total penalty time. It is worth noting that most of this time came as game misconduct minutes, and didn't provide either team with any sort of elongated player-up time. As the snow settled, the Pioneers ended up with nearly nine minutes of power play time while the Cougars had just a single two-minute spell of power play time.
As the contest began, Utica sped ahead just like they had the night before, getting out to a 2-0 lead just over midway through the first period. The game seemed to be following a similar script as the one played by both teams the night prior, with Chatham managing to cut the deficit in half before the Pioneers put away another puck to take a 3-1 lead into the third period. Facing the exact same situation as yesterday, the Pioneers wasted no time putting this one out of reach, piloting a three-goal third period to clip the Cougars and come away with a big 6-2 UCHC victory.
The Pioneers improved to 17-2-2 with the win, also boosting their UCHC record to 13-1-2. The team increased its UCHC point total to 42, leaving them tied with the Geneseo Knights heading into a massive clash between the two conference powers that will take place in less than a week. The fate of the UCHC's regular season championship will most likely hinge on the outcome of next weekend's series, with the Pioneers and Knights standing alone atop the UCHC standings.