Box Score STAMFORD, Conn. – Elmira scored five of the game's first six goals to jump out to an early lead and help spoil Senior Night for the Manhattanville men's hockey team on Saturday night, as the Valiants fell to the Soaring Eagles by a 7-4 score in ECAC West Conference action at Terry Conners Rink.
The loss, combined with Neumann's emphatic 8-2 win over Hobart on Saturday night, puts Manhattanville (11-10-2, 4-7-2 ECAC West) into a tie for fourth place with the Knights with two games remaining on the conference slate, three points behind third-place Hobart. Elmira (14-8-1, 9-3-1 ECAC West) moves into a tie with Utica for first place in the standings with the win.
On a night that the Valiants celebrated their seven graduating players, the Soaring Eagles did not play the role of the welcome guest, scoring four times in the second period to break open the game. Jordan Robertson had two of those goals for the game's lone multi-goal night, while six other Elmira skaters had multi-point games as well.
Junior
Jake Mooney (Toronto, Ont./North York Rangers (OPJHL)) and freshman
Teagan Waugh (Nanaimo, B.C./Powell River Kings (BCHL)) both had a game-high three points for Manhattanville on a goal and two assists apiece, while junior
Anton Racklin (Gothenburg, Sweden/Fairbanks Ice Dogs (NAHL)) and freshman
Tanner Hicks (Calgary, Alta./Brooks Bandits (AJHL)) both scored as well for the home team.
Much like last night, the opening period was a relatively quiet one, with the lone goal coming in the final two minutes. This time it was Elmira that got on the board first, as Brian Depp converted a three-on-one break with his seventh goal of the year at 18:38.
Unlike last night, however, the scoring did not stop there. Hicks knotted the score at 5:47 of the period with a snipe from the high slot, but the tie lasted only 12 seconds before Robertson beat senior netminder
Alex Scola (Exeter, N.H./Woodstock Slammers (MJHL)) from a tough angle to give Elmira back the lead. The Soaring Eagles kept coming after that, with Robertson converting again on the power play at the midpoint of the period to make it a 3-1 game, followed by tallies from Alexander Taulien and Jarryd ten Vaanholt that made it a 5-1 game.
The Valiants managed to get one back before the end of the period, as Racklin scored his sixth power-play goal of the year (and seventh overall) with 3:23 remaining.
Down by four with four minutes remaining, Manhattanville needed a record-breaking comeback and, while that did not come to fruition, the team did set a new school record by scoring twice in seven seconds to get back within two. Mooney converted a nice feed from Racklin at 17:09 to make it 6-3, and off Mooney's ensuring faceoff win the shot of senior
Luc Van Natter (Fort Erie, Ont./Aurora Tigers (OPJHL)) was stuffed home by Waugh at 17:16. The seven seconds between tallies are tied for the second-fastest consecutive goals by the same team in Division III history, surpassed only by two Wisconsin-Stout goals that supposedly came two seconds apart in 1976.
The momentum could not be kept up, however, as Eddie Nolan iced the game with an empty-net tally in the final 30 seconds to give Elmira the win.
In contrast to last night, on Saturday it was Elmira with the large shot disparity, leading the Valiants 42-25 in that category. Scola made 35 saves in a losing effort, while Ryan deMelo made 21 saves on 25 shots for Elmira.
Manhattanville will complete the regular season with two games in Utica next weekend at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. Friday night's game will be audio streamed live on GoValiants.com beginning at approximately 7:15 p.m.
