Boxscore

RYE, N.Y. – Sophomore All-American Katie Little (Victoria, B.C.) once again scored a pair of goals, one on the power play and another shorthanded, as the #10 Manhattanville women's hockey team closed out its season-opening weekend with another ECAC East Conference victory, 3-1 over Saint Anselm College, on Saturday evening at Playland Ice Casino.

Little netted a pair for the second straight night, giving her nine career multi-goal games in 29 appearances for Manhattanville. The sophomore also added an assist for a season-high three points.

Goaltending was stellar on both ends of the ice, led by Valiant sophomore Emy Cote (Saint-Hubert, Que.), who made 27 saves to pick up her second straight win, including 10 stops in the opening frame. For Saint Anselm, Amy Zappen kept her team in the contest by making 28 saves, with 22 coming in the first two periods.

After a scoreless first period, Little got the Valiants on the board at the 11 minute mark of the period on the power play. Junior Jackie Solomito (Sea Cliff, N.Y.) found the All-American forward on the left side of the side and Little glided across the circles before shuffling a backhander under Zappen's pads for her third goal of the season. 

The Valiants gave the lead up less than three minutes later, as a giveaway in the defensive zone resulted in a breakaway chance that Kristen Byrne put past Cote for her second goal of the season.

But Manhattanville answered right back less than a minute after that, as freshman Haleigh Hutchinson (Southgate, Mich.) gave the home team the lead back for good with her first collegiate goal. With 6:09 remaining in the period, Hutchinson found some room along the right dasher and fired a wrist shot from a tough angle that beat Zappen short-side. Little and freshman Mallory Watts (Bloomfield, Mich.) recorded the assists on the score.

That was all the scoring until late in the game, when the Valiants added an insurance tally. With Saint Anselm on the power play and pressing for the game-tying score late in the contest, Little capped the night off with her second goal of the contest, a shorthanded score with 2:01 left on the clock.

The Manhattanville special teams were on top of their game once again on Saturday, as the Valiants killed off all seven Hawks power-play chances and converted one man-up and one man-down score.

Manhattanville (2-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC East) will return to the ice on Tuesday evening for another ECAC East Conference matchup against Nichols College at 7 p.m. That game can be seen live online at GoValiants.TV starting at 6:50 p.m.