Box Score Boxscore

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Manhattanville women's ice hockey team took No. 3/3 Middlebury to overtime and ended up drawing with the host Panthers by a 2-2 score. Sophomore Haleigh Hutchinson (Allen Park, Mich./Honeybaked (TOEHL)) and junior Lynsey Schill (Waterloo, Ontario/Kitchener Rangers (PWHL)) each scored in the third period as the Valiants extended their unbeaten streak to five games.

The Valiants opened the game with a strong 10 minutes of hockey before momentum shifted in favor of Middlebury. Manhattanville however, did kill a pair of penalties taken at the 6:12 mark, as well as 16:05 into the game.

The crimson and white got their own pair of power play chances to start the second period but were unable to capitalize on their chances. To end the period the Valiants took two more penalties and gave Middlebury a 5-on-3 power play chance that carried over into the final stanza in regulation.

With the score still tied the Valiants killed off the two-player disadvantage and momentum shifted back in favor of Manhattanville after the penalty kill. Shortly after killing off the penalty the Valiants made their way down the right dasher boards as junior Katie Little (Victoria, British Columbia/Team British Columbia) connected on a pass to linemate Hutchinson who placed the puck into the back of the net to give her team a 1-0 lead just 1:57 into the period, junior defender Lauren Nutkevitch (Montreal, Quebec/Dawson College) picked up the secondary assist.

After another Manhattanville penalty gave the Panthers a power play, Middlebury capitalized 44 seconds later and tied the game at one. Less than a minute later the Panthers struck again and took a 2-1 lead with 11:12 remaining in the game.

The Valiants took advantage of a penalty taken by Middlebury and Schill capitalized to tie the game at two a piece off of a pass from Nutkevitch. With the score tied at two and time ticking towards the end of regulation, Manhattanville took a yet another penalty with 18 seconds to go in regulation.

In the extra session the Valiants killed off their sixth penalty and also took a pair of shots that were sticked aside by Middlebury netminder Annabelle Jones who finished the game with 16 saves. In goal for Manhattanville was senior captain Emy Cote (Saint-Hubert, Quebec/Dawson College) who made 34 saves including a game-high 15 saves in the third period. Cote's record now sits at 1-3-2 after collecting her second consecutive tie.

On the power-play Manhattanville went 1-for-4 while they killed six of the seven penalties they took in the contest. Shots on goal were in favor of Middlebury at an 36-18 margin.

Manhattanville (4-4-2, 3-2-1 ECAC East) will be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they take on the No. 8/8 Plattsburgh Cardinals from the Stafford Ice Arena in upstate New York, with the puck set to drop at 3:00 p.m. Game coverage of the final contest of the 2011 calendar year will be available on WMVL 88.1 FM. Middlebury (5-0-2, 4-0-0 NESCAC) concludes its' 2011 half of the season and will return to action on January 6, 2012 when they travel to Wesleyan (Conn.) to take on the Cardinals.