King's College Athletics

ASTON, PA (November 11, 2022) --- The King's College men's ice hockey team snapped a two-game losing skid, as sophomore Kent Lee's hat trick propelled the Monarchs to a 5-2 win over Neumann University on Friday night. With the win, King's improves to 2-3-0 overall and 2-2-0 in UCHC play, while the Knights fall to 1-4-0 overall and 0-3-0 in conference.
 
King's (2-3-0, 2-2-0) got out to a quick start as sophomore Alexander Ray opened the scoring just over two minutes into the contest. Ray took a pass from first-year Samuel Libetti finding the net putting King's up 1-0 at 2:25. Neumann (1-4-0, 0-3-0) responded quickly however, as Brady Mistler beat senior goaltender Ismael Ralsten to tie the game at one, at 5:52. Lat in the opening period, sophomore Aaron Frenkel put the Monarchs back in front on a power-play tally, taking the pass from Jack Cooper to move King's back in front 2-1 at 17:28. On the back of Frenkel's goal, the Monarchs led 2-1 after 20 minutes.
 
The second period started much like the first as King's found the net early. Lee picked up his first goal of the game just over two minutes into the second frame, as Cooper and sophomore Tyler Blanchard picked up assists on the Lee tally, put King's up 3-1 at 2:05. Neumann did not go away quietly, cutting the deficit to one late in the period on a Luke Croucher marker at 17:08, cutting the King's lead to 3-2 heading to the final period.
 
With the Monarchs up a goal and twenty minutes to play, Lee took over. The sophomore notched his second goal of the game, this time on the power-play. Once again it was Lee picking up the goal, while Blanchard and Cooper collected the assists, as King's went in front 4-2 at 10:14. With time running down, Neumann pulled the goalie for the extra attacker and Lee capitalized scoring his third goal into the empty net at 19:15 to give the Monarchs the 5-2 win.
 
Ralsten was once again outstanding in net, picking up the win while making 37 saves on 39 shots. Lee led the offense, tallying his three goals on four shots, while Cooper and sophomore Patrick Nowak added four shots on goal, and Blanchard collected three. King's won 27 of 62 face-offs, led on the night by Blanchard who won 11 of 20, and Nowak who went 9-17. The Monarchs were strong on special teams, going 2-3 on the power play, and continuing their strong play on the penalty kill going 4-4.
 
Cole DeFazio made 22 saves on 26 shots, collecting the loss in net. The Knights offense was led by Croucher and Mistler, who each tallied a goal. Neumann won 35 of 62 face-offs, but had a poor showing on special teams, going 1-3 on the penalty kill and 0-4 on the power play.
 
King's will look for the weekend sweep against Neumann tomorrow in Aston, PA with puck drop at 4 p.m.