WILKES-BARRE, PA (DECEMBER 4, 2024) – The King's College men's ice hockey team fell 4-2 to the Cougars of Misericordia University on Wednesday night at the Toyota SportsPlex at Coal Street Park.  With the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) loss, the Monarchs move to 2-8-0, 1-6-0 in conference play while the Cougars secure their first win of the season to improve to 1-5-3, 1-4-2. Five out of six goals from tonight's game were scored in the third period of play.

No goals were scored in the first period, but two penalties were issued to the Cougars, the first to Samuel Libetti for tripping at 11:44 and to Jonathan Lush for interference at 18:17. The Monarchs were unable to capitalize on the power play opportunities and the game remained scoreless going into the first intermission.
Jackson Grozelle tallied the first penalty of the game on King's in the second period with a hooking call at 1:41. Jack Tos got the Cougars on the board midway through the period with help from Lush and Cameron Hawks. Misericordia's Zach Ross was called for interference at 10:21 with King's Johnny Malandruccolo penalized for cross checking at 13:21. The Cougars led 1-0 going into the third period.

Much of the action came in the final 20 minutes of regulation with five goals and six penalties. Ethan Hollingsworth made it a 2-0 game at 4:11 with an assist from James Eng and Ryan Karbach was called for high sticking at 4:22. Nicholas Solema scored an unassisted, short-handed goal for the Cougars at 4:45 to extend the lead to 3-0. With assists from Luke Babilon and Alexander Ray, Patrick Nowak scored the first foal of the game for the Monarchs at 12:11. Less than a minute later, Charles Obobaifo answered back with an unassisted goal.

A slew of penalties came in the final six minutes as Zane Burleigh was called for tripping at 14:54, Cameron Perry for slashing at 16:29, Jakub Viedemann for tripping at 19:09 and both Johnny Malandruccolo and Eric Honold for roughing at 19:49. Kent Lee scored an unassisted, power play goal off the penalty on Perry at 17:41, but the 4-2 score stood in favor of the Cougars as time expired. Ethan Hersant went 13-10 in faceoffs and first-year goaltender recorded 33 saves in net.

The Monarchs return to Toyota SportsPlex at Coal Street Park for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop against the Cougars on Saturday, December 7.