Box Score Boxscore
MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Manhattanville women's hockey team dropped their first ECAC East matchup on Saturday afternoon by a score of 3-1 to Saint Anselm as the Valiants fall to 1-3 in the early going of the 2011-12 season.
The Hawks were in control during the early stages of the game taking seven of the first nine shots on goal for both sides, all turned aside by junior netminder Emy Cote (Saint-Hubert, Quebec/Dawson College). Saint Anselm eventually got one past Cote at the 12:49 point of the period to give the Hawks the first period 1-0 lead.
Each side continued to get shots off against one another but with no success as they skated into the first intermission with the Hawks holding onto the 1-0 lead.
In the second, Saint Anselm added to their lead at 11:00 into the period when Tiffany Herron notched her first goal of the afternoon. After the goal, the Hawks continued to crash the net taking the following six shots as Cote continued to keep the Valiants in the game heading into the third period.
After the second intermission the Valiants trimmed the lead in half at 5:05 into the period when sophomore Haleigh Hutchinson (Allen Park, Mich./Honeybaked (TOEHL)) scored her first of the season coming off of a pass by junior Jessica Kehoe (Kemptville, Ontario/Nepean Wildcats (PWHL)). Just as it had looked Manhattanville took momentum back over, the Hawks were given a power play just over two minutes later and took the momentum right back.
The best opportunity the Valiants had was at the 10:28 mark of the frame when they were awarded with a power play of their own that resulted in nine shots by the road team, including a pair each from juniors Mary Rose Morrison (Ridgefield, Conn./Connecticut Stars (MFYHL)), Lynsey Schill (Waterloo, Ontario/Kitchener Rangers (PWHL)) and Lauren Nutkevitch (Montreal, Quebec/Dawson College).
Time continued to wind off the clock and Manhattanville was given one more chance on the power play that saw them take another five shots including one off the stick of junior Sonia Occhionero (Montreal, Quebec/Kent School (Conn.)) that rang off the post.
With 1:01 to go in the game, Cote was pulled in favor of the extra skater but the offense could get nothing on goal as pair of shots taken by Nutkevitch and senior Hannah Muskego (Neilburg, Saskatchewan/PWM Steelers (AMMFHL)) were blocked before they could reach Hawks goalkeeper Amy Zappen.
With the net empty at the other end, Herron was able to place the puck into the empty net with three seconds to go to ice the game and send the Valiants home with a weekend split against Saint Anselm and UMass-Boston.
In goal, Cote made 26 saves on the afternoon but takes the loss to fall to 1-2 on the year. Zappen made 21 saves to collect her second win of the season against no loses.
Both teams went scoreless on their power play chances as Manhattanville went 0-for-5 and Saint Anselm went 0-for-7. Faceoffs were in favor of the Valiants as they won 36-of-60, including an impressive 21-for-25 from Schill.
Manhattanville (1-3, 1-1 ECAC East) will have two weeks to regroup after their loss before returning home for their Playland opener against Holy Cross on November 18 at 7:00 p.m. with live coverage available on GoValiants.TV. Saint Anselm (2-0, 1-0 ECAC East) will be back in action when they take on Nichols in a game that was originally slated to be played on Friday evening, the puck drops at 2:00 p.m. in Manchester, N.H.
