The Utica Pioneers and St. John Fisher Cardinals have been competing together in the Empire 8 since the Cardinals joined the conference in 1998. Despite the years of competition, the schools have never been able to face off on the hockey rink. This was until the announcement that St. John Fisher would be getting a hockey team and would be competing in the UCHC right alongside Utica.
Utica got the home ice advantage for the long-awaited matchup on Friday, Jan. 30 for the first half of the UCHC weekend series. The Pioneers had a lot of positives going into the games. Ranked tenth in the country and riding a 7-game win streak, they had high hopes against a St. John Fisher team that was 9-9 and coming off of two straight losses.
After a 7 p.m. puck drop at Utica’s Adirondack Bank Center, the Cardinals held their own for the opening minutes, killing off a power play taken in the first three minutes, and a few exceptional saves from freshman goaltender Dylan Grover. Despite these upsides, it only took about six and a half minutes for Utica’s Mathieu MacMillan to net the first of what would end up being many for the Pioneers.
Later in the period Anthony Bax would set up on the blue line and dish a puck in the direction of the net. After losing the puck in traffic, Nick Ahern took credit for a tip in goal. In the words of Utica play-by-play broadcaster Ray Biggs, “Not one deflection, but two!”
After Utica enjoyed a comfortable lead for the first period intermission, they went right back to work as Alexander Gullichsen put all his strength into a powerful wrist shot that didn’t give Grover any time to react. Drake Morse and Nick Rogers would both add on goals in the second period to extend the Pioneer lead to five.
Despite the zero on the scoreboard after 40 minutes of play, there were a lot more stats to look at to get the full story. Both goaltenders were gathering reactions from the crowd with their movement and coordination. While the elite level saves from Utica goaltender Frank Murphy were frustrating for the Cardinals, they provided a boost of confidence for Utica Head Coach Gary Heenan as he was giving Murphy just his fifth start of the season.
Going into the third period, the Pioneers continued to play the same way, hounding on offense and tight on defense. Gullichsen would score his second of the game before Ian Emery would score the lone goal for the Cardinals. It would only take about a minute after that for Stepan Kuznetsov to match Emery’s goal and retake a six goal lead. This goal would help to extend Kuznetsov’s point streak as he has tallied a point in every game he has played since joining the Pioneer squad after the winter break.
With a final score of 7-1, The Pioneers outplayed the Cardinals as all seven of their goals were scored at even strength, this was the third game the Pioneers have won by six or more goals.
The Pioneers then traveled to the Rochester Ice Arena on Feb. 1 where they beat St. John Fisher again. The 4-0 victory would feature four different goal scorers and a 20 save shoutout performance from Frank Murphy. The Pioneers extended their winning streak to nine in a row and look ahead to Elmira College this weekend, Feb. 6 and 7, as the end of the regular season quickly approaches.
