NEWARK, NJ - The NJIT men's hockey team, on the road for the first time this year, traveled to Atlantic City to play against the Sharks of Stockton State University. The team, already shorthanded due to a stomach bug that caused multiple players to miss practice this week and leading scorer Sal Micciche unable to play suffered a major setback early in the second period as 1 st line wing, Matt Sendecki dislocated his shoulder and was taken to the hospital.

At the time, the score was 2-0, in favor of the Sharks on a pair of goals late in the opening period. The home team would go on to add another pair of late goals in the 2 nd period as well. The Highlanders fought bravely for the first half of each period, but the numerical superiority was too much to overcome and despite the tremendous effort in net, by Colby Puletz Stockton was able to take advantage.

NJIT scored their only goal of the game in the 3 rd period due to a fierce effort by defenseman Paul Wendling who stepped up at his own blue line, poked the puck into the neutral zone, where gained control and led the rush up ice. After encountering some resistance, Wendling curled to the boards and found fellow defenseman Jeff Patterson open at the far point. Jeff calmly received the pass, stepped up and fired a wrist shot that deflected off a Stockton player and into the net. Unfortunately, Stockton had opened the period with their only early goal of the night to increase the lead to 5-0. Once again, the Sharks netted a pair of late goals to account for the final score.

Goals: Patterson
Assists: Wendling
Saves: Puletz 36 saves
SOG: Stockton 42              NJIT 19
PP: Stockton 1/4                 NJIT 0/3 
PK: Stockton 3/3                NJIT 3/4 

Stockton, one of only 2 remaining NJ teams in the Colonial States Collegiate Hockey Conference, where NJIT was for the past 10 years, will travel to Prudential Center for a rematch on January 20th . Meanwhile, The Highlanders will return home to play Rutgers tomorrow night - Sunday at RWJ at 8:30 pm.