By Michael Battista / @MichaelB_96

It’s over! The Colonial States College Hockey Conference regular season has come to a conclusion and after 16 weeks the playoff field is finally set. Four teams will hit the ice this Friday and the winners of those games will go-on to play the top two seeded teams on Saturday. The final two will meet on Sunday to determine a Colonial Cup champion.

TCNJ Takes Top Spot From UPenn, Claims #1 Seed

In probably the most important game of last weekend, TCNJ defeated second place UPenn, 5-0. The win, and subsequent win over West Chester the next day, clinched both the first overall playoff seed and regular season championship for the Lions. The team previously won the regular season title back in 2016.

The Lions’ Kristopher Hastings put on an MVP performance as he scored two goals and one assist in the win, inching his career points total closer to 100. The same went for team captain Marc Teitjen who assisted on Hastings opening score midway through the first period. Matt Lojewski, Anthony DeAlto, and James Dugan rounded out the scorers for TCNJ, which were stopped from adding on in the third period by a reinvigorated David Ostrowski in UPenn’s net. His offense, however, did not match up with his new tempo. The Quakers were only able to put up 11 shots against Michael Lojewski, bringing their game total to 18, before the final horn sounded.

UPenn head coach Scott Carmack, who was not able to attend Friday’s game, said falling in a hole against any team is difficult. 

“Hard to come back against any team in that situation,” Carmack said when referencing his team allowing three goals in the span of six minutes to start the second period.

The Lions went on to sweep their weekend games, including a make-up against Seton Hall on Sunday, by a combined score of 18-9. Hasting and Teitjen, both seniors who have been on the team for four years, both earned their respective 100th point in the Saturday game against West Chester on the same play (both assisting on a Matt Lojewski goal while Hastings also assisted Teitjen on a late third period score).

West Chester Downs Marauders in Playoff Decider

In another Friday decider, West Chester University squashed any chance of a Saturday standings shakeup when the team defeated Millersville University, 8-5. The win locks the Rams in as the 5th seed, the same spot it was in the last time it reached the postseason in 2018, while the Marauders will hope to play spoiler as a 6th seed.

The Rams were able to hold off a late push by Millersville as the visitors scored four unanswered goals at even strength to see the night out. Goalie Athieu Schroeder, who replaced Garret Baldacci in net midway through the second period, did his job in net by stopping 16 of 18 shots against him. 

It was a clear contrast to the start of the game when Millersville struggled to get any offense against the Ram’s Hudson Mokrejs while the opposing offense sliced them up. Six unanswered goals 25 minutes into the game allowed West Chester to adjust their lines and play with tactics more, without taking their foots off the gas.

“I thought we played a good game against Millersville,” Rams head coach Patrick Wilson said after the game. “I thought we played a really strong game 5v5 and won the special teams battle. There were a lot of penalties both ways and our PK did a great job all time and our powerplay capitalized when it needed to.”

The team went three for seven on the power play and Hunter Neiss even scored the first of his hat-trick goals short-handed.

Millersville finished the weekend by beating Monmouth in its regular season finale. The Rams meanwhile lost to TCNJ in the Lions regular season clinching effort and then traveled to Loucks Ice Arena for a non-conference game on Sunday to Rider University, losing 11-0.

Full Scores

Friday, Feb. 7

The College of New Jersey (5) vs University of Pennsylvania (0) (CSCHC Game)

TCNJ Goals:

1: Kristopher Hastings (PP) (Marc Tietjen, Dan Martin)

2: Matt Lojewski (PP) Andrew Summa, Andrew Lem)

3: Anthony DeAlto

4: Kristopher Hastings (PP)

5: Jameson Dugan (Travis Beni, Kristopher Hastings)

 

Monmouth University (4) vs Rutgers University (1) (CSCHC Game)

Rutgers Goal:

- Not Reported

Monmouth Goals: 

1: Donny Califano

2: Richie Sabbagh

3: Richie Sabbagh (2)

4: Nick Smythe

 

West Chester University (8) vs Millersville University (5) (CSCHC Game)

West Chester Goals:

1: Shane Stefani (PP) (Richard Spor, Trevor Yeager)

2: Trevor Yeager (Richard Spor)

3: Hunter Neiss (SH)

4: Hunter Neiss (2) (Alex Marino)

5: Dylan Storz

6: Nicholas Schuck (Teriq Mapp)

7: Hunter Neiss (3) (PP) (Alex Marino)

8: Deryck Zerby (PP) (Richard Spor)

Millersville Goals:

1: Niklas Latronica (Tyler Poulin, Travis Tuson)

2: Brenden Ward (Tyler Poulin)

3: Christopher Henn (Tyler Browne)

4: Tyler Poulin (David Andrews, Tyler Browne)

5: Tyler Poulin (2) (Pat McAteer)

 

Saturday, Feb. 8

Millersville University (5) vs Monmouth University (3) (CSCHC Game)

Millersville Goals:

1: Christopher Henn (SH) (Curtis Jones, Tyler Poulin)

2: Tyler Browne (SH) (Dennis Kohajda, Christopher Henn)

3: Brett Vacarelo (Tyler Browne, Michael Carrelli)

4: Christopher King (Travis Tuson, Niklas Latronica)

5: Travis Tuson

Monmouth Goals:

1: Donald Califano

2: Richard Sabbagh (Michael Russ, Todd Zellars)

3: Todd Zellars (Richard Sabbagh)

 

Rutgers University (5) vs University of Scranton (2) (CSCHC Game)

Scranton Goals:

1: John Forlenza II (Kieran Gruby, Ryan Fitzmaurice)

2: Matthew Piro (Kieran Regen, John Foster)

Rutgers Goals:

1: Branden Kushnir (Thomas Bruckman, Brian Mazur)

2: Justin Dalonzo (Christian Hoppeler, Anthony Poppalardo)

3: Christian Hoppeler (Anthony Poppalardo, Joshua LoGiudice)

4: Anthony Poppalardo (PP) (Anthony Margiotta)

5: Timothy Anzano (SH) (Anthony Margiotta, Sean Murphy)

 

University of Pennsylvania (5) vs New Jersey Institute of Technology (2) (CSCHC Game)

NJIT Goals:

1: Michael Caufield (Dalton Smith)

2: Michael Caufield (2) (PP) (Jason Applin, Ted Lee)

UPenn Goals:

1: Brett Rahbany (Robert Blend)

2: Robert Blend (SH)

3: Brett Rahbany (2) Robert Blend)

4: Will Torgerson (Hayden Stephan)

5: Brett Rahbany (3) (PP) (Robert Blend, Hayden Stephan)

 

The College of New Jersey (7) vs West Chester University (5) (CSCHC Game)

West Chester Goals:

1: Dylan Storz

2: Trevor Yeager (PP) (Grey Rumain, Shane Stefani)

3: Richard Spor (Teriq Mapp, Deryck Zerby)

4: Hunter Neiss

5: Alex Marino (Kenneth Kissinger)

TCNJ Goals:

1: Kristopher Hastings (Andrew Lem)

2: Kristopher Hastings (2) 

3: Patrick Coyle (Glenn Puzo, Marc Tietjen)

4: Ryan Anderson (Matt Lojewski, Jameson Dugan)

5: Matt Lojewski (Marc Tietjen, Kristopher Hastings)

6: Jameson Dugan (Anthony DeAlto)

7: Marc Tietjen (Dan Martin, Kristopher Hastings)

 

Sunday, Feb. 9

St. Joseph’s University (6) vs New Jersey Institute of Technology (2) *Jan 18th Makeup Game*

NJIT Goals:

1: Michael Caufield (Michael Wright)

2: Dalton Smith (James Lyle)

 

Rider University (11) vs West Chester University (0)

 

The College of New Jersey (6) vs Seton Hall University (4) (CSCHC Game) *Jan 18th Makeup Game*

Seton Hall Goals:

1: Thomas Healy (Jenson Labrecque)

2: Keegan Sullivan (SH) (John Zabriskie)

3: Thomas Healy (2) (Max Allen)

4: Nick Serapiglia

TCNJ Goals:

1: Glenn Puzo (PP) (Matt Lojewski, Ryan Anderson)

2: Kristopher Hastings (Travis Beni)

3: Marc Tietjen (Travis Beni, Kristopher Hastings)

4: Patrick Coyle (Travis Beni, Anthony DeAlto)

5: Marc Tietjen (2) (PP) (Travis Beni, Dan Martin)

6: Dan Martin (Anthony DeAlto, Kristopher Hastings)
 

Final CSCHC Conference Standings after 16 Weeks