RYE, N.Y. – With 65 minutes not enough to determine who was taking home the second point of the day, the Manhattanville College men's hockey team emerged victorious in a shootout against Nazareth on Sunday evening. The 3-3 tie, 2-1 shootout victory improves the Valiants' record on the season to 7-5-2 overall on the year and 4-3-2 in UCHC play.

After having their three goal lead disappear over the final period and a half, Manhattanville was able to improve to 2-0 in shootouts this season following the scoreless overtime period. After Glynn Robitaille (Northville, Mich./Detroit Catholic Central) and Nicholas Charron both found the net on their respective team's first shootout attempt, the goalies of Reid Robertson (Plano, Texas/Plano West) and Matt Sayles got the upper hand in round two. Nick Prestia (Niagara Falls, Ont./Salisbury School) then took the puck at center ice and converted on his attempt, while Ryan Turse's shot was off the mark to earn the second point for Manhattanville.

The game seemed destined for anything but a shootout given the way things started, with Manhattanville wasting no time to get on the board. Just 17 seconds after the opening faceoff, AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) scored courtesy of assists from Troy Crosson (Hatfield, Pa./Pennridge) and Josh Fletcher (Calgary, Alb./Central Memorial). The home team was not quite done with the early scoring, as Prestia netted a power play goal at 1:54 off passes from Robitaille and James Gregory (Darien, CT/Darien High School).

The 2-0 lead would carry over into the second, when Robitaille would net one in regulation 7:05 into the period from Jarod Lavallee (Cumberland, Maine/Greely) and Marcus Korduner (Stokholm, Sweden/Sollentuna HC).
Despite the three goal deficit and having recorded just nine shots on goal to that point in the contest, Nazareth refused to go away quietly. Cole Moore began the comeback for the visitors, finishing a pass from Turse. Three and a half minutes later, Johnny Jackson fired one past Robertson while on the power play to pull the Golden Flyers back within one.

The equalizer came just under three minutes into the third, as Moore struck again with his second of the night from JT Entelisano to tie things back up at 3-3.
Neither team was able to replicate the scoring success through the remainder of regulation or in the five minute overtime period. The Valiants were held to just one shot in the 3-on-3 period off the stick of Connor Boyce (St. Albans, Vt./The Winchendon School), while Robertson successfully stopped all four shots thrown his way from the open ice, sending the game to the shootout.

For Robertson, it was his second start in net in as many days, making 27 total saves on Sunday against Nazareth. The senior ends the weekend with 63 saves across the two games, dropping his goals against average on the season to 4.06.

Faceoffs were fairly even, with Nazareth earning a slight 30-29 edge. Alex Rowella (Ridgefield, Conn./Holy Cross (H.S.)) and Fletcher led the team with 10 wins each. The Valiants were 1-for-4 on the power play with 11 shots, while Nazareth went 1-for-3 with three shots on the man advantage.

Up Next
The Valiants are Pennsylvania bound next weekend for a pair of conference matchups, starting on Friday at 7 p.m. against Kings College.

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