The Wilkes men’s ice hockey team heads into the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) playoffs Tuesday night against Nazareth College.

The Colonels will be at home Tuesday night in front of their home crowd at the Toyota Sportsplex. 

Wilkes tied with Manhattanville going into the playoffs at 37 points. However the tiebreaker goes in favor of Manhattanville, so this pushes the Colonels back into the fourth seed. 

The Colonels will host the fifth seeded Nazareth. 

The first time these two teams met this season was back in December when the Colonels and Golden Flyers faced off at the Mohegan Sun Arena. 

Wilkes came away with a late shorthanded goal from Devon Schell which ultimately gave the Colonels the lead 3-2 late in the third period, before holding off Nazareth and getting the victory.

The two teams met again this past Friday night at the Bill Gray’s Iceplex, where Nazareth and Wilkes tied, but Tyler Barrow earned  Wilkes extra point in a sudden death shootout. 

The Colonels have not been able to breakthrough tough goaltenders the past few games they have faced difficult goalies. 

One of coach Riley’s points of emphasis going into this game against Nazareth is take shots from all over if given the opportunity. 

“It’s going to be a game of getting pucks to the net…. And forcing a really good goalie to really work hard,” said coach Riley. 

Sean Kuhn for Nazareth held his own during the prior meeting between the Colonels and Nazareth College. 

Kuhn made 41 total saves including nine in the regular overtime period before the sudden death shootout. 

Kuhn usually averages around the mid thirties as far as saves he has to make per game. 

Kuhn will definitely be a big impact and the Colonels lead goal scorers Donald Flynn, Brendan Logan, and Tyler Barrow are going to have to keep offensive pressure and crack open Kuhn.

On the Colonels side they are going to look to Brandon Gordon who has emerged as the Colonels’ top goalie.