Boxscore

GENEVA, N.Y. – Despite shooting Hobart College in all three periods and finishing with a 14-shot edge in shots on goal, the #12 Manhattanville men's hockey team dropped a 1-0 decision to the Statesmen in the first round of the ECAC West Tournament on Wednesday night at the Geneva Recreation Center.

Fourth-seeded Hobart (15-9-2, 4-7-1 ECAC West) advances to Saturday's semifinal round against top-seeded Elmira College with the win, while fifth-seeded Manhattanville (15-10-1, 3-9-0 ECAC West) has its 2010-11 season come to a close with the loss.

It was a hard pill to swallow for the Valiants, who peppered the Hobart net with 36 shots and allowed just 22 on their cage. However, Hobart's Nick Broadwater turned aside all 36 attempts to pick up the win, while junior Pierre-Olivier Lemieux (Rimouski, Que./Neepawa Natives (MJHL)) was the hard-luck loser for the Valiants despite making 21 saves on 22 shots.

The only goal of the game came while the teams skated four-on-four in the opening frame. After the Statemen won a faceoff in their own zone, the puck was taken up the ice and Matthew Wallace fired a shot that Lemieux turned aside but could not control, allowing Patrick Moriarty to pounce on the rebound for his fifth goal of the year. Brad Richard was also credited with an assist on the score, which came at the 14:33 mark of the period.

Manhattanville outshot Hobart 6-1 for the remainder of the frame, yet went into the first intermission down by a goal.

Both teams had their chances in the second period, but neither team could score. Manhattanville had to kill off one minute of five-on-three disadvantage, but the Valiant defense kept the scoring chances to a minimum and Lemieux made a pair of stops to keep it a one-goal deficit.

Heading into the third period, Manhattanville held a 23-16 edge in shots and also had nearly five full minutes of power-play opportunity ahead of it, as Hobart's Tommy Capalbo was whistled for a boarding major with 11 seconds left in the middle frame. However, the visitors managed only three shots on the man advantage and Broadwater saved them all to keep the home team up by a goal.

The Valiants kept up the pressure, taking 13 shots in all over the final 20 minutes, but they could not solve the Hobart netminder. After a timeout, the team pulled Lemieux for an extra skater with 1:03 remaining, but despite some pressure in front of the Hobart cage the equalizer never came.

Wednesday's game marks the final collegiate contest for the Valiants' seven seniors – Artem Gumenyuk (Kharkiv, Ukraine/South Kent School), Mickey Lang (Reno, Nev./New York Apple Core (EJHL)), Victor Nordenson (Stockholm, Sweden/Alaska Avalanche (NAHL)), Steve Parry (Clearwater, Fla./Springfield Falcons (EJHL)), Lem Randall (Yellowknife, N.W.T./OCN Blizzard (MJHL)), Sasha Romanenko (Kharkiv, Ukraine/Hebron Academy) and Sergiy Sorokolat (Kharkiv, Ukraine/South Kent School) – who combined for a record of 69-27-10 and a pair of ECAC West Tournament titles in their four seasons with the team.