ROCHESTER, NY – The Nazareth men's hockey team had three team members with record-setting performances on Wednesday as the No. 2 seed cruised to a 5-1 win over Alvernia in the UCHC quarterfinals. Freshman
Logan Tobias scored two goals, pushing his season total to 19, solidifying his goal mark as the most in program history. Goaltender
Raphael Provencher made 23 saves to pick up his 11
th win of the season to tie the Nazareth single season record. Lastly, senior
Henry McKinney added three assists and now hold the single season points record, currently with 34 points on nine goals and 25 assists.
With the win, Nazareth will host No. 3 Stevenson in the seminfinals on Saturday (TBA) at the Bill Gray's Iceplex. Earlier in the season, the two squads split in Maryland, with the Mustangs winning the first contest 7-3, before Nazareth took the second matchup 4-1. The other semifinal will feature top-seeded Utica hosting No. 4 Manhattanville.
For the opening goal just over 11 minutes in, Tobias used a full head of steam from his own blue line to race past the Alvernia defense and slip a shot around the goaltender. It was his 18
th goal of the season, tying him for the all-time single season record at Nazareth, held by Domink Gabaj in the 2016-17 season.
Six minutes later,
Harrison Dumas lit the lamp, hammering in a cross-ice pass from
Johnny Jackson.
Mark Meinecke also had an assist on the play. It was 2-0 after a period of play.
Nazareth kept the pressure on in the second, adding a power play goal from
Anthony Quinlivan and an even strength goal from
Josh Dressler.
Quinlivan buried a rebound off a Michael Dischiavi shot in close for his third goal of the season with just over 11 minutes left in the second.
A little over two minutes later, Dressler took an outlet pass from Tobias and had his shot just inside the blue line hit the goaltender and trickle in for the 4-0 advantage which would stay that way into the third.
The Golden Wolves were eventually able to get on the scoreboard with just over three minutes remaining in the game.
Nazareth put the game out of reach on an empty net goal from Tobias, putting him alone on the single season goal scoring list at Nazareth. The freshman has seven goals in the last three games for the Golden Flyers. McKinney notched his third assist on the goal and moved past Ben Blasko's 31 points in 2014-15.
Provencher ties Ed Zdolshek with 11 wins on the season, the most in any single season at Nazareth.