ASTON, Pa. – After a United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) first round victory over third seeded Lebanon Valley College on Wednesday evening, the Neumann University men's ice hockey team will hit the road again for a semifinal matchup at Utica College on Saturday afternoon.

Neumann comes into the semifinal contest with a record of 10-14-2 after their opening round win over the Flying Dutchmen. Paul Butler, Zac Boyle and Glenn Florczak all scored in the 3-1 road win, while senior net-minder Matt Gibney made 28 saves in goal.

Utica enters the matchup with a record of 19-5-1, including a 12-4 mark in UCHC play as the conference's top seed. The Pioneers are now ranked 10^th in the country in the USCHO.com national poll.

The Knights and Pioneers split their two games this season with each team winning on their home ice. Utica picked up a comfortable 9-1 home win on December 9th, but Neumann won the most recent matchup on February 10^th by a score of 3-2. In the win earlier this month, the Knights came back from a 2-0 deficit, scoring a late second period goal and two third period tallies to notch the come from behind win. Nick Minerva registered a goal and an assist, while Butler and Connor Annett also scored for the Knights. Gibney was also stellar in between the pipes for the Knights, stopping 32 Pioneer shots to pick up the win in goal.

Neumann has been led this season by the quartet of Liam Board, Jake Davidson, Joe Mitchell and Ryan 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. Gibney has also been excellent late in the season between the pipes for Neumann, backstopping the Knights to a record of 6-3-1 this year with a 2.79 goals against average and a .911 save percentage.

The other UCHC semifinal on Saturday features second seeded Stevenson University hosting fifth seeded Elmira College. The winners of the two semifinal contests will meet next Saturday, March 3^rd in the UCHC Championship, hosted by the highest remaining seed.