Utica College Pioneers move up two spots in Division III men's hockey national rankings.

The Utica College men's hockey team continues to climb the USCHO.com Division III National Poll, and after a weekend sweep over Hobart College, the Pioneers have cracked the top ten for the first time since Dec. 12.  The ninth-ranked Pioneers are now the highest ranked team in the ECAC Men's West Conference after moving ahead of No. 10 Elmira College. Neumann University and Manhattanville College are both in the receiving votes in that category.

"Being a fixture in the national rankings really just means you're playing well against quality opponents and I think we have done that so far this year," said 11th year Head Coach Gary Heenan, who has 143 career victories in his first and only head coaching job.  "We need to really concentrate our efforts on Manhattanville - they are one of the hottest teams in the country right now ... This is a huge weekend for our program." 

The Pioneers (14-5-1, 3-3-1 ECAC West) began the season ranked No. 13 and they have not have fallen below that spot the entire year.  An early season victory over No. 2 Oswego catapulted UC into the national spotlight, as they garnered the No. 7 spot in the nation's most trusted ranking system.  From that point forward, Utica has bounced between the 8-12 slots over the course of the last nine poll releases. 

After an award winning five point weekend junior forward Evan Chlanda is now tied with sophomore Trever Hertz for the team-lead with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists).  Chlanda has proven himself to be the Pioneers most consistent scoring threat, tallying at least one point in 19 of 20 games played this season. 

After missing four games due to injury, UC welcomed the return of senior captain Tim Coffman into the lineup this past weekend.  Coffman stepped right into the spot light and put his stamp on the College's all-time record books by breaking 2005 graduate Jimmy Sokol's all-time scoring record.  Coffman now holds the all-time assists (75) and points scored (130) marks and he needs four goals to complete the triple crown by breaking the record for goals scored. 

Sophomore goalie Evan Smith has earned the starting role in net for the Pioneers.  Hobart out shot Utica 58-54 over the course of two games this past weekend and Smith stopped 54 shots to help lift Utica to two consecutive 5-2 victories.  Smith did not allow a third period goal all weekend and he also fended off all seven of the power-plays he faced.  He won his third straight game and improved to 9-3-1 on the year.  He is one of just 14 goalies in DIII hockey to hold a goals against average below 2.00 and his GAA of 1.98 leads the ECAC West.  

The Pioneers have now won three consecutive contests headed into a pivotal ECAC Men's West Conference weekend against visiting Manhattanville. They will take on the Valiants at 7 p.m. in front of the nation's largest crowd at the Aud on Friday night, before jumping right on the bus to travel to the Playland Ice Casino to complete the season series against Manhattanville on Saturday night.  Fans who cannot make it out to the game can find links to live video, audio and stats at www.ucpioneers.com.