Lebanon Valley 5, King's (Pa.) 4

LVC Starters
Johnson (LW), Karas (C), Hovanec (RW), Yingst (D), Straub (D), Perhac (G)

King's Starters
O'Mara (LW), Bucci (C), Cirinna (RW), Foster (D), Palumbo (D), Tugnutt (G)

How It Happened
PITTSTON, Pa. – For the first time since the 2003-04 season, Lebanon Valley's men's ice hockey team is headed to an NCAA postseason conference tournament. The Dutchmen edged King's (Pa.) by a 5-4 margin today to clinch a spot in the upcoming UCHC Tournament. LVC improved to 10-8-2, 9-3-2 UCHC, 2-3-1 MAC, while the Monarchs remained winless and are now 0-22-0, 0-13-0 UCHC, 0-6-0 MAC.

After each team scored a goal in the opening period, a wild second period ensued. 3:23 into the second, Bryan Hovanec found the back of the net on the power-play from TJ Sneath and Zak Sheikh to put the Dutchmen up by one at 2-1. Just 19 seconds later, with LVC on another man-advantage, Brennan Thompson scored from Nick Skerlick and Brad Nolan to increase the advantage to 3-1. A desperate King's team responded, however, at 5:50 when Isaac Cirinna netted an unassisted, short-handed goal, then at 12:32, the Monarchs evened things up at 3-3 when Jamie Lukas scored a PP-goal. Later in the period, with just over two minutes left, Nolan put the Dutchmen back up by one at 4-3 off assists from Thompson and Russ Armbruster, and LVC went into the third with a narrow lead.

5:04 into the final period, the back-and-forth contest was tied up yet again when the Monarchs' Mitchell Foster found the back of the net. Then, with six minutes left in the third, Hovanec put the Dutchmen ahead for good with a goal from Sneath and Jared Karas. LVC was able to hold off King's for the remainder of the period and sneak out of Wilkes-Barre with a one-goal victory.

Lukas netted the game's first score in the later stages of the first, but with 41 seconds left in the opening period, Kevin Van Bokkelen evened the game at 1-1 from Sneath and Zach Balodis.

Inside the Numbers
 - LVC will be back in an NCAA postseason tournament for the first time since the Dutchmen reached the ECAC Northeast Semifinal game back on March 6, 2014.
 - Hovanec recorded two more goals tonight to tie Brett Johnson and Travis Acker for the team lead in goals at 11.
 - Nolan and Thompson picked up a goal and a helper each.
 - Cole Hepler went 7-for-10 from inside the faceoff circle and LVC held the overall edge in faceoff wins at 37-29.
 - Tyler Perhac made 25 saves to pick up his sixth win of the season and move to 6-2-1.

Playoff Picture
The Dutchmen and Utica are currently atop the UCHC standings with 20 points, followed by Stevenson (18) and Elmira (17). LVC's seed is still yet to be determined and the Dutchmen have two conference games remaining: at Manhattanville and home against Elmira. In the UCHC Tournament, the top-two seeds get byes, while the third seed will face the sixth seed and the fourth seed will battle the fifth seed.

Who's Next?
LVC heads to Purchase, N.Y. to take on Manhattanville tomorrow at 7 p.m.

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