Box Score STAMFORD, Conn. – The Manhattanville men's hockey team nearly pulled off a dramatic comeback in the waning minutes, but in the end a four-goal deficit was too much to overcome as the Valiants fell to Hobart by a 4-3 score in ECAC West Conference action on Friday night at Terry Conners Rink.
 
Junior Jake Mooney (Toronto, Ont./North York Rangers (OPJHL)) led the Valiant charge late in the game, finishing with a game-high two goals to give him a team- and conference-leading 10 so far on the season. Senior Louie Balzano (Staten Island, N.Y./New York Apple Core (EJHL)) assisted on all three Valiant goals for a career-high three points and freshman Teagan Waugh (Nanaimo, B.C./Powell River Kings (BCHL)) notched the first goal of his career as well for the home team.
 
Down by four goals at the midway point of the second period, Manhattanville (10-7, 3-4-0 ECAC West) started its comeback attempt with 3:29 remaining in the middle frame thanks to Waugh, who buried a shot from close range to get the home team on the board.
 
The goal seemed to wake up the Valiants, who proceeded to out-shoot the Statesmen 10-5 in the third period to get back into the game. Mooney made it a 4-2 game with 7:46 remaining with a snipe from the slot, and the junior did it again with 3:00 on the clock to get his team within a goal.
 
The Valiants emptied the net with 1:03 to go and even got a power-play chance when Bronson Kovacs was whistled for cross-checking with 54 ticks remaining. But the game-tying goal could not come, despite Mooney missing by inches at the doorstep in the final seconds.
 
The late-game urgency would not have been necessary if the Valiants hadn't had a lackluster first 30 minutes, when the Statesmen scored twice in each of the first two periods to jump out to the huge lead. Two Hobart goals came unassisted off Valiant defensive zone turnovers, while a third off the stick of Bo Webster came on the power play. But the hardest to swallow came while the Valiants were up a man, when Robert Sovik took a drop pass from Terrence O'Neill and beat junior Brian Fleming (Saint John, N.B./Northern Cyclones (AJHL)) to make it a four-goal game.
 
Fleming, who received little help at all from his teammates, allowed all four goals on 12 shots over the first 29:58 of play to suffer the loss. Senior Alex Scola (Exeter, N.H./Woodstock Slammers (MJHL)) came on and stopped all 10 shots he faced the rest of the way to keep the home team in the game. Lino Chimienti earned the win for Hobart (9-4-4, 3-1-3 ECAC West), stopping 22 of 25 shots that came his way.
 
Manhattanville and Hobart will head back to Terry Conners Rink tomorrow night to complete their two-game weekend series, with the puck set to drop at 7:30 p.m. in Stamford. The live GoValiants.TV coverage will begin at approximately 7:15 p.m.