Utica, NY – On Saturday, Chatham Men's Hockey (19-5-1, 10-5-1) took on (#9/#9) Utica (17-7-1, 13-2-1) in the final regular season game of the 2025-26 season. The Cougars dropped the game to the Pioneers by a final score of 10-3. 

The first period saw the Cougars keep pace with the ranked Pioneers, building off of last night's strong effort. The teams traded early chances, and the Cougars fired 15 shots but were unable to solve the Pioneers' defensive structure. At 13:37, the Pioneers broke the deadlock, scoring at even strength to go up 1-0. The Cougars would go into the locker room, trailing by a slim margin, in large part due to their goaltender, Nik Trakakis. Despite letting one in, he made 15 first-period saves, keeping the Cougars within striking distance. 

In the second period, the game started to slip away from the Cougars. Early on, the Pioneers doubled their lead. Three minutes later, they would add another goal, to go up 3-0. The Pioneers' offensive onslaught continued, scoring two more unanswered goals, making it 5-0 late in the second frame. The Cougars would get one back before the period was up. At 18:21, True Crowe buried his 6th goal of the season with assists going to Nick Babbie. 

The third period had the game getting out of hand. The Pioneers added two more goals early in the frame, making it 7-1. Bekk McClaine would find the back of the net for his 10th goal of the season, from Kyle Contessa and Kowin Belsterling, at 6:01. Building off the momentum of McClaine's goal, the Cougars struck again a minute later. This time, Michael Roby added to his single-season program record mark to make it 7-2. Roby's 22nd goal of the season was assisted by Dylan Young and Camden Davis. The Cougars comeback would fall short as the Pioneers added three more goals, including one in the dying seconds, to clinch the lopsided 10-3 victory. 

Offensively, seven different Cougars recorded a point as tonight's offense was spread across the team's four lines. Defensively, Kyle Contessa had a game-high 4 blocks while True Crowe added 2 of his own. 

With the regular season coming to a close, the Cougars finished 3rd in the UCHC with a 10-5-1 conference record. The Cougars will host Brockport in the opening round of the UCHC Playoffs on Wednesday, February 25th. Puck drop is set for 5:30 pm at the Alpha Ice Complex. In the meantime, Cougars faithful are encouraged to attend Men's Basketball as they open their title defense at home on Tuesday, February 24th at 7 pm.