Boxscore

RYE, N.Y. – Elmira College scored once in each period and netminder Darren MacDonald made 25 saves as the Soaring Eagles handed the #6 Manhattanville men's hockey team a 3-1 loss in the first game of a two-game ECAC West Conference weekend series on Friday evening at Playland Ice Casino.

Elmira did not have a particularly potent offensive attack on Friday night, recording just 24 shots, but the visitors were able to put one into the back of the net in each frame to pull out the win. Kevin Willer, John Clewlow and Darcy Vaillancourt picked up the goals for the Soaring Eagles, with Vaillancourt also adding an assist for a game-high two points.

Manhattanville, meanwhile, at times struggled to generate a lot of quality scoring chances despite taking two more shots than their opposition. The Valiants' lone goal came largely due to the singular effort of senior blueliner Artem Gumenyuk (Kharkiv, Ukraine/South Kent School), who did his best Bobby Orr impression in taking the puck the length of the ice before shoveling it past MacDonald and into the net for his third of the year.

Elmira struck first in the contest after Manhattanville had gone scoreless on two power-play chances, as Vaillancourt won a puck behind the net and fed out in front to a wide-open Willer at the 8:39 mark. The Soaring Eagle lead doubled at almost the exact same time of the second frame, with this time Clewlow tipping home a Rick Acorn shot at 8:42 to give the visitors a two-goal lead after 40 minutes of play.

Gumenyuk's end-to-end goal came on the power play with 6:08 gone by in the third period off an assist from junior Marcus von Sydow (Stockholm, Sweden/Djugarden J20 (SWE)), and seemed to give the Valiants some life for the first time as the home team pressed for the equalizer. But Manhattanville could not capitalize on a pair of Elmira penalties late and Vaillancourt eventually sealed the game with an empty-net goal in the final 30 seconds of regulation.

Manhattanville was done in partially by its lack of success on the man advantage, as the nation's sixth-ranked power play went just 1 for 8 on the night despite firing 13 shots. Elmira was not much better, going 1 for 6 with a man up.

MacDonald made 25 saves to pick up the victory, while junior Pierre-Olivier Lemieux (Rimouski, Que./Neepawa Natives (MJHL)) turned aside 21 shots in a losing effort for the Valiants.

Manhattanville (14-5-1, 2-5-0 ECAC West) and Elmira (11-5-3, 5-2-0 ECAC West) will complete their two-game weekend series tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Playland Ice Casino, with all the action covered live on GoValiants.TV.