UTICA, N.Y. - The Neumann University men's ice hockey team could not keep pace with second ranked Utica College on Sunday afternoon, falling in the team's United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) regular season finale by a score of 12-1.
 
Richie Brusco set the program record for most games played in a Neumann uniform on the day, playing in his 109th career game as a Knight while also recording an assist. Evan Hoey scored for Neumann in the loss.
 
The Knights would have their hands full on the afternoon playing the second game of a back to back versus the second ranked team in the country. Utica took charge right from the jump, scoring 6:31 into the contest to take the early lead. The Pioneers were not done yet in the period, rattling off four more markers to take a 5-0 lead into intermission.
 
Things would just get worse for the visitors in the second. Utica steamrolled to five more goals in the stanza to put the game far out of reach with the score 10-0 after two.
 
The Pioneers kept rolling into the final frame, scoring the first two goals of the period to lead 12-0. Neumann got on the board at the 12:20 mark of the period, as Hoey found the back of the net off assists from Brusco and Hunter Litman to break up the shutout bid.
 
Neumann (8-15-1, 5-12-1 UCHC) will now have three days to recover before opening the UCHC playoffs on Wednesday, February 23rd. The Knights are the 7th seed in the conference playoffs and will travel to 2nd seeded Wilkes University. Game-time is scheduled for 7:00 PM.