RYE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College men's hockey team scored three goals in the second period en route to a 5-2 victory in the quarterfinal round of the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) playoffs over Lebanon Valley College Tuesday night, Feb. 19.
The Valiants (16-7-3) entered the night as the third seed in the UCHC tournament, while the visiting Flying Dutchmen (9-15-2) were the sixth seed. Lebanon Valley got on the board first, scoring on a shorthanded opportunity at 7:19 in the first following a turnover in the neutral zone that led to a 2-on-1 opportunity for the goal. The visitors took that 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Senior Marco Ferarro was a large part in keeping the Valiants within reach in the first. Senior goaltender
Tyler Feaver (Whitby, Ont./Whitby Fury (OJHL)) was forced to make a tough save on an odd-man rush with 5:35 remaining, but it took him out of position and left the net open. It was then that Ferarro was forced to make a save of his own in front of the wide open net to keep the Valiants within one.
The second period started fast for Manhattanville as sophomore
Braedan Cross (Sechelt, B.C./Cochrane Crunch (CJHL)) punched in a rebound in front on the powerplay at 3:18 to knot the game up at 1-1. Exactly seven minutes later, senior assistant captain
Matt Lippa (Richmond Hill, Ont./Oakville Blades (OJHL)) perched in front of the net and capitalized on a rebound to score the game's third goal at 10:18 in the second and give the Valiants a 2-1 lead. Then, at 11:51,
Nigel Slade (St. Catherines, Ont./Niagara Falls Canucks (GOJHL)) scored the eventual game-winner as fellow senior
Jeff Beck (Broomall, Pa./Philadelphia Junior Flyers (EHL)) found his centerman wide open in the slot to beat the Dutchemn netminder on the high glove side. LVC got one back at 14:16 in the period to cut Manhattanville's lead in half and the score would remain 3-2 after two.
Just 3:14 into the third, the puck trickled up the far side boards and wound up on edge and in the possession of Ferarro. The fourth-year Valiant wound up a ripped one from the blueline that snuck past the visiting goalie and Manhattanville extended its lead to 4-2. With just about 9:25 remaining in regulation and the Dutchmen within reach, an errant Valiant pass led to a 3-on-1 rush for the visitors. Feaver was able to make not one, but two amazing saves in that sequence to keep Manhattanville ahead by two. The scoring closed with just 00:12 remaining as senior
Jeff Beck (Broomall, Pa./Philadelphia Junior Flyers (EHL)) scored on the empty net to seal the win at 5-2.
Highlights:
- Lippa and Beck each finished with a goal and an assist, while senior co-captain Casper Dyrssen (Stockholm, Sweden/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) notched a pair of assists,
- Feaver made 29 stops on 31 shots.
- As a team, the Valiants won 41-of-74 faceoffs, led by junior centerman Kenny McLean (New Rochelle, N.Y./New York Bobcats (EHL)), who was 14-of-20 at the dot.
Having won the UCHC quarterfinal matchup, the Valiants now advance to the semifinal series this weekend, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22-23, at second-seeded Elmira College, -- the two teams split the season series 1-1, which each squad winning at home. Manhattanville and the Soaring Eagles faceoff at 7:00 p.m. both nights, with the winner advancing to the championship series. If the two teams split the games, a tiebreaking "mini-game" will follow Saturday's game to decide the winner. The series' victor will face the winner of the No. 5 Nazareth College at No. 1 Utica College series.
