PITTSTON, PA (January 18, 2019) – Luciano Bucci continued his excellent season for the King's College men's ice hockey team with a short-handed goal in a 11-1 loss to visiting Elmira College at Revolution Ice Centre on Friday evening.

Bucci's eighth career goal occurred as the Monarchs were fighting off three consecutive penalties late in the game. JP Natishan forced an EC turnover inside the blue line knocking the puck to Bucci down the right side of the ice for a breakaway. The sophomore beat the Soaring Eagles goaltender to the right for his 12th point of the season.

Elmira (9-8-0, 7-3-0 UCHC) jumped on top with six goals in the first 14 minutes of the game. Connor Powell scored three straight in a span of seven minutes for a hat trick in the first nine minutes. Marty Kapoian, Chris Moses, and Matthew Cuce added goals for the visitors in the period as Elmira outshot the Monarchs 20-7.

Cuce started the second period with his second tally of the game 3:33 in. Goals by Patrick Schmelzinger and Nick Ford increased the EC lead up to 9-0 after 40 minutes of action. In the third period Nick Grinvalds scored an unassisted short-handed goal before Justin Robertson deflected in his first goal of the season to give the Eagles an 11-0 advantage.

There were 19 penalties called in the game, 10 by King's and nine by Elmira. The Soaring Eagles scored on two of their nine power play opportunities and had two short-handed goals. The Monarchs were 0-for-6 on the power play and scored one short-handed goal. EC held a 48-19 shot advantage.

Christian La Croix and Jamie Lukas took three shots each for the Monarch offense while Cameron Anklewich and Luke Damiano had two apiece. Anklewich won 12 of 21 faceoff attempts while Bucci won 12 of 22. Isaac Cirinna was an effective 9-4 in the faceoff circle. Brandon Daigle made seven saves and allowed three goals in 6:30 before being replaced in goal by Jake Tugnutt. The senior made 30 saves the rest of the way.

Powell and Cuce led the Soaring Eagles with three points each. 14 different skaters recorded at least one point while eight different Eagles found the back of the net. Charl Pretorius made 18 saves in his first action of the season in between the pipes.

The Monarchs will look to rebound from the loss on Wednesday when they travel down to Hershey to face Lebanon Valley College at 7 p.m. in Hersheypark Arena.

 --MONARCHS--