NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The second-seeded Manhattanville women's hockey team cruised past the third-seeded New England College Pilgrims on Saturday afternoon by the score of 5-0 in the ECAC East Conference Tournament semifinals at Norwich's Kreitzberg Arena. 

The Valiants were led by junior Katie Little (Victoria, British Columbia/Team British Columbia), who had three goals and an assist to reach the 100-point mark for her career. Classmates Alyssa Taylor (Craik, Saskatchewan/Sait Polytechnic (ACAC)) and Lauren Nutkevitch (Montreal, Quebec/Dawson College) also scored in the victory.

The game started off fairly slow with both sides trying to find one another's weaknesses while trying to limit turnovers. With 8:16 gone by in the period, Little scored her first goal after receiving an outlet pass from classmate Sonia Occhionero (Montreal, Quebec/Kent School (Conn.)) and deking around two Pilgrim defenders to backhand the puck home the first goal of the game.

In the first period, New England outshot the Valiants by an 8-5 margin with two of those shots coming on the lone power-play chance of the period. The Pilgrims took one penalty of their own, which carried over into the second period.

In the second the Pilgrims killed off the final 37 seconds of their penalty and the sides were even at five once again. Just over four minutes later New England gave Manhattanville another power play chance and got two shots off from juniors Lynsey Schill (Waterloo, Ontario/Kitchener Rangers (PWHL)) and Mary Rose Morrison (Ridgefield, Conn./Connecticut Stars (MFYHL)) without success as Pilgrim starting goalie Kristen Conners made stops on both.

After both teams had shortened power plays, Manhattanville got momentum back and got back in the score column in the process, as Taylor took a shot from the sharp angle that was banged home by Little. With her goal, Little became the 16th player in Manhattanville history to reach the 100-point mark for her career.

Several minutes later the two players reversed roles as Taylor sent a shot to the back of the net with Little getting the assist on the third tally of the game. The score chased Conners from the goal and brought in freshman Lauren Hopps for the final 1:26 of the second period.

In the third the two sides exchanged penalties through the first six-plus minutes of the stanza. Once the penalties subsided, Manhattanville controlled play and continued their outburst of shots through the final period.

At 15:43 of the third Little completed the hat trick, with sophomore Mallory Watts (Bloomfield, Mich./Honeybaked (MWEHL)) getting the helper on the goal to put Manhattanville up 4-0; for Little, it was her team-leading 17th goal of the year. Less than a minute later the Valiants took another penalty and gave New England a chance to get back into the game, but the defense held strong blocking three shots on the Pilgrim power-play chance.

A minute later New England took a penalty of their own and gave the Valiants a chance to finish off the game, a chance they took full advantage of. After some crisp passing from between Occhionero, Nutkevitch and sophomore Haleigh Hutchinson (Allen Park, Mich./Honeybaked (TOEHL)), Nutkevitch ripped a laser of a shot top-shelf over Hopps' left shoulder to cap off the scoring at five.

In total, the Valiants outshot their counterparts by a 30-22 margin, and finished the game going 2-of-7 on the man advantage. New England was unsuccessful on their extra skater opportunities, going 0-for-5 while taking six shots on the game.

In goal, junior Emy Cote (Saint-Hubert, Quebec/Dawson College) stopped all 22 shots sent her way for her fourth consecutive shutout while picking up her ninth win of the year. Taking the loss was Conners, who made 13 saves while allowing the first three Valiant goals in 38:34 worth of ice time. Hopps came on in relief and stopped a dozen shots in the third period while allowing the final two goals of the game.

Manhattanville (15-8-4) advances to the ECAC East Championship game for the second consecutive year and will defend its title against top-seeded and national #2 Norwich tomorrow at 3 p.m.. New England College (11-13-3) finishes their 2011-12 campaign and will look ahead to the 2012-13 year.