UTICA, N.Y. – The Bryn Athyn College men's ice hockey team faced its toughest in program history on Friday night when the Lions to the ice in the Adirondack Bank Center to take on No. 7 Utica College. After battling through a scoreless first period, the Utica firepower proved to be too much as the Lions fell to the Pioneers 6-0.
Bryn Athyn's (6-9-1) defensive effort and goalie McKenzie Chalmers did a tremendous job getting the Lions through the first period scoreless despite being outshot 17-1. In addition to Chalmers' 17 stops, the Lions blocked seven other shots before they could end up on target.
Utica (14-3-1) would eventually break through at the 7:33 mark of the second period when Mikhail Bushinski found the back of the net with assists from Tyler Pietrowski and Dalton Carter. Just under five minutes later, Kevin Valenti doubled the Pioneer advantage. Daniel Fritz and Bushinski.
The Lions nearly got out of the second period down only two, however, Pietrowski scored just before the clock hit zero to put the Pioneers' third goal on the board.
Utica widened the gap to 5-0 in the third on back-to-back power play goals. Roman Ammirato scored his Division III leading ninth power play goal of the season on a breakaway at 2:09 for the team's fourth goal. Brett Everson added the second man-advantage goal of the period at the 15:13 mark.
Conor Landrigan recorded the final goal of the evening at 16:05 with assists from Gregg Burmaster and Jacob Gerson. The play was originally called no goal, but, at the next stoppage, the officials declared that the puck did cross the goal line and came right back out.
Chalmers finished the game with 39 saves. At the Utica end, Gianluca Baggetta stopped eight shots to earn the shutout.
Utica ended the game 2-for-4 on the power play, while Bryn Athyn was 0-for-1.
Bryn Athyn returns to Junge Pavilion for its final home game of the season against King's (Pa.) on Friday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.