Box Score SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Despite posting a 48-32 edge in shots, the Manhattanville men's hockey team could only get one puck past Western New England netminder Eric Sorenson as the Valiants suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Golden Bears in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday night at Smead Rink.
 
Manhattanville (3-4-0) had at least 14 shots in each period, but the visitors could not make the most of their plentiful opportunities in the loss. Senior Luc Van Natter (Fort Erie, Ont./Aurora Tigers (OPJHL)) had the lone goal of the game for the Valiants, while Western New England (5-3-0) got single goals from Josh Twiermeyer, Ryan Taylor and Joe Zeidler.
 
The teams traded swings of momentum in the first period, with each team peppering the opposing netminder over the course of the period. The first goal came at the 14:32 mark off the stick of Twietmeyer, who beat junior netminder Brian Fleming (Saint John, N.B./Northern Cyclones (AJHL)) to make it 1-0 Golden Bears. But the Valiants came back less than three minutes later, when Van Natter took passes from seniors Mark Rivera (Belmar, N.J./Springfield Pics (EJHL)) and Louie Balzano (Staten Island, N.Y./New York Apple Core (EJHL)) before finally beating Sorenson to knot the score.
 
Manhattanville finished the first frame with a 14-11 edge in shots. The Valiants' advantage was even more decisive in the second period, taking 18 shots to WNE's nine, and yet it was the Golden Bears who scored the only goal of the frame, coming from Taylor with 2:33 remaining in the middle stanza.
 
The Valiants did all they could in the final period to even the score, taking 16 more shots, but they could not solve Sorenson. Manhattanville pulled Fleming with 1:27 remaining to gain an extra attacker and got one shot on goal, but the Golden Bears salted the game away on Zeidler's empty-net tally with 25 seconds left on the clock.
 
Fleming made 29 saves for Manhattanville to drop his record to 2-2-0 on the year. Sorenson improved to 3-2-0 with his season-high 47-save effort.
 
Manhattanville will return to action after Thanksgiving, as the Valiants travel north for a second straight year to take part in the Rutland Herald Invitational, hosted by Castleton State. The team will kick off the weekend on Saturday at 3 p.m. against SUNY Brockport.