Boxscore

RYE, N.Y. – Three different Hobart College players scored and sophomore Nick Broadwater made 24 saves as the Statesmen sent the #11 Manhattanville men's hockey team to its fifth consecutive defeat, 3-1, in ECAC West Conference action on Friday night at Playland Ice Casino.

With the win, Hobart (14-8-2, 4-6-1 ECAC West) clinches the fourth seed in next week's ECAC West Tournament, meaning that the Statesmen will host fifth-seeded Manhattanville (14-9-1, 2-9-0 ECAC West) in the first round of the postseason on Wednesday night in Geneva.

Friday night's contest was not an uneven contest, as both teams had their chances offensively. Hobart finished the night with a slight 28-25 advantage in total shots, but both goaltenders made some quality saves to keep the opposition's score lower than it could have been. Broadwater made 24 saves on 25 Valiant attempts, while MVille junior Pierre-Olivier Lemieux (Rimouski, Que./Neepawa Natives (MJHL)) made 25 saves on 28 chances.

The first period saw good chances from both teams but no scoring, and the second period looked to follow suit before the Statesmen capitalized on a power-play chance with five minutes left to take a lead. On the man advantage, Brad Richard made a pass from his own zone right down the middle of the ice to Matthew Wallace, who split the Valiant defense and roofed a shot over Lemieux's shoulder for the game's first goal and his team-leading 16th of the year.

The score remained that way until the 8:29 mark of the third period, when Patrick Moriarty took a pass from Wallace in front of the cage and put it into the back of the net to double the Statesman lead.

Manhattanville seemed to become more desperate after that score, keeping the puck in the offensive end and putting the Hobart defense on its heels. After more than eight minutes without seeing any product of its pressure, the Valiants finally got on the board with 3:01 remaining when freshman Luc VanNatter picked up the deflection of a shot by classmate Brian Elser (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./Bay State Breakers (EJHL)) and beat Broadwater for his fifth of the year.

But despite the team's best efforts, Manhattanville could not pick up the game-tying goal and keep its hopes of a home playoff game alive, as VanNatter's shot was the team's final shot on goal of the evening. With the final seconds ticking down, Gregory Ciciola fired the puck into an empty Valiant net with less than a second remaining in the game to complete the scoring.

The Valiants and Statesmen will close out the regular season with game two of the weekend series tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Playland Ice Casino.  GoValiants.TV will have all the Senior Night action live starting at 6:45 p.m.