The William Paterson Pioneers and Rutgers University Ice Knights met for a two game series on February 21-22, 2020.  The teams were meeting for the second series of the season with the Pioneers taking two victories back in December.

WPU 6 RUTGERS 5

The teams opened up the second series with a Friday night matchup at ProSkate Arena in Monmouth Junction, NJ.   Freshman, Ryan Moloughney, would get the Pioneers on the board with a first period goal off a shot from Adam Marvin.  WPU came alive in the second period with four unanswered goals to make the score 5-2.  Tommy Bauer led the barrage with two, identical top shelf wristers.  The Ice Knights would fight back and tie the game at 5-5 late in the 3rd period.  The teams headed to a shootout where it was Bauer and Andy DeAngelis tallying goals to give the Pioneers the win.  Jeremy Hamerquist had 21 saves and Cole Mulholland had 4 saves in net for WPU.

WPU 6 RUTGERS 3

The next afternoon the teams met for the 4th and final time with WPU looking for the season sweep.  The Ice Knights would get an early goal, but it was all Pioneers the rest of the afternoon.  Andy DeAngelis continued his strong play down the stretch with a goal to tie it up the score after 20 minutes.  The native Alaskan, Zach Thompson, popped in 2 goals in the second period to push the lead to 4-1 WPU.  Nick Brown would finish with 2 goals and Cole Mulholland had 19 saves to close the door in the 6-3 victory on the road. 

The Pioneers picked up the season sweep versus Rutgers going 4-0 on the season.  “Beating a team 4 times in a season is a great feeling, especially when the team is in-state,” said Tommy Bauer.  The veteran winger, who played for St. Joseph’s Metuchen High School, has been with the program for four years and is a big part of WPU’s dominance versus other in-state hockey programs.  Since 2009, the Pioneers hold a record of 35-5-2 versus New Jersey colleges and universities.   

With the weekend sweep, the Pioneers close the regular season with a 3 game winning streak and overall record of 16-7-2.  “We are playing well and it was a great way to end the regular season,” said Bauer.

William Paterson will head to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland for the 2020 ECHA playoffs.  The opening round game is vs Lehigh on Friday, March 6 at 8:30pm.  Streaming information will be announced next week!

Photo Credit: Marissa Vandenberg