ASTON, Pa. – The Neumann University men's ice hockey team heads to the inaugural United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the tournament. The team will head to No. 3 Lebanon Valley College on Wednesday evening for a first round matchup versus the Flying Dutchmen.

Neumann finished the season with a record of 9-14-2, including an 8-6-2 record in conference play. In the tightly contested UCHC standings, Lebanon Valley finished four points ahead of the Knights with an overall record of 12-9-2 and a conference record of 10-4-2.

If the regular season meetings are any indication, Wednesday's playoff contest should be an exciting one. In two extremely close games, the Knights went 0-1-1 against the Flying Dutchmen this season, tying 3-3 on home-ice on November 4^th and losing 7-6 on the road on January 20^th.

In the early season home matchup, Ryan Swain led the Knights with a pair of goals while Liam Board picked up two assists. Anthony Pupplo got the start in goal that afternoon and made 39 saves in the draw.

When the two teams met in January, Neumann was led by three points apiece from Joe Mitchell (2 g, 1 a) and Jake Davidson (1 g, 2 a). The Knights trailed that game 5-2, but rallied to tie the contest late before Lebanon Valley scored with just 1:16 left to clinch the win.

The Knights have been led this season by the quartet of Board, Davidson, Mitchell and Swain. Board leads the team with 19 assists and 29 points, while Mitchell tops the team in goals with 13. Davidson has been a force on defense all season for the Knights with 25 points from the back-end and Swain is second on the team in goals with 13. Senior goalie Matt Gibney has also been stellar late in the season between the pipes for Neumann, backstopping the Knights to a record of 5-3-1 this year with a 2.98 goals against average and a .906 save percentage.

The other UCHC first round matchup on Wednesday night features No. 4 Manhattanville hosting No. 5 Elmira. The winners of the two first round contests will head to No.1 Utica and No. 2 Stevenson on Saturday, February 24^th.