UTICA, NY (February 15, 2019) – Senior Jamie Lukas scored his ninth goal of the season off assists by classmates Nicholas Palumbo and Nicholas Gullo as the King's College men's ice hockey team fell to nationally-ranked Utica 10-1 in a United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) game on Friday evening from the Aud in Utica.

The host Pioneers (16-6-2, 13-3-1 UCHC) entered the game ranked 15th in the D3hockey.com Poll and were the second team outside the top 15 in the USCHO Poll. UC also came into the weekend atop the UCHC standings and needing a win against the Monarchs to clinch the top seed in the conference tournament starting next week.

Utica came out strong as Shawn Lynch gave the Pioneers the lead just 22 second into the game. Gregg Burmaster scored just before the five-minute mark and Lynch added another goal to give Utica a 3-0 lead after the first period of play. Burmaster would add two more goals and Lynch would score again in the second period for hat tricks as Utica took a 7-0 lead a little over midway through the period.

The Monarchs cut into the lead while on one of their four power play opportunities of the evening when Gullo and Palumbo assisted on Lukas' 13th career goal. Palumbo had the primary assist on the play for his fifth of the season and 34th of his career while Gullo recorded his first assist of the year and 10th of his career.

Burmaster finished the game with six points on four goals and two assists while taking four shots and being +8. Lynch added five points on three goals and two assists taking six shots and being +6. He also won nine of 15 faceoffs. Brett Everson recorded five assists in the game. 13 different Pioneers recorded at least one point with seven having multi-point games. Gianluca Baggetta made 17 saves and recorded an assist in the first two periods for his 12th win of the season in goal. Sean Dickson made 13 saves in the third period.

Lukas and Tyler O'Mara led King's with four shots each while Luciano Bucci, Palumbo, and Eric Menninger had three apiece. Brandon Daigle made 36 saves in goal recording 17 in the first period, 12 in the second, and then seven in the third.

The Monarchs committed just two penalties in the game and successfully killed both Utica power play opportunities. The Pioneers held a 46-31 shot advantage in the game. The 31 shots in a game is a season-high for King's.

King's will wrap up the season tomorrow afternoon in Rochester when they take on Nazareth College at 4 p.m. from Bill Gray's Regional Iceplex.