SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Despite the first career two-goal game from freshman Matt Lippa (Richmond Hill, Ont./Oakville Blades (OJHL)), the Manhattanville College men's hockey team dropped the championship game of the Skidmore College Invitational to SUNY Cortland by a 6-3 score on Sunday afternoon at the Saratoga City Rink.
 
Lippa led Manhattanville (6-3-0) in the title game with his first career multi-goal game to tie him for the team lead with five goals on the year, while classmate Cory Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif./Notre Dame Hounds (SJHL)) also found the net for the fourth time this season. Fellow freshman Eric Berglund (Sollentuna, Sweden/Islanders Hockey Club (USPHL)) assisted on all three Valiants goals and was named to the All-Tournament team thanks to a five-point weekend.
 
Manhattanville twice came back from a one-goal deficit to even the score early in the game, but Cortland exploded for four of the game's final five goals to pick up the championship.
 
Lippa tied the score at one with less than two minutes remaining in the opening frame, with assists on the score going to Berglund and fellow freshman Oscar Arfelt (Stockholm, Sweden/Connecticut Oilers (EHL)).  After Zach Felser gave Cortland back the lead with a shorthanded tally, Anderson scored less than a minute later to tie the game 5:09 into the middle frame.
 
The Red Dragons added another at 15:56 of the second period and then held that lead for much of the third period before eventually tacking on a fourth goal on the power play at 14:10 of the third. Cortland added two more empty-net tallies sandwiched around an extra-attacker goal from Lippa to complete the victory.
 
Manhattanville finished the game with a 27-22 edge in shots, but Cortland managed to score four goals on 20 shots against freshman Tyler Feaver (Whitby, Ont./Whitby Fury (OJHL)). Drew Weigman made 24 saves for Cortland on the way to Tournament Most Valuable Player honors.
 
The Valiants will get back to Playland Ice Casino on Friday night, when the team concludes the first semester of ECAC West Conference play with another big conference matchup against Neumann University set to face off at 7 p.m.