RYE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College men's hockey team held off a furious comeback effort by Alvernia University Friday night, defeating the Golden Wolves 5-3 at the Playland Ice Casino. The Valiants improve to 5-4-0 overall with the win and are now 5-2-0 in UCHC play.

Despite holding a 4-0 lead heading into the third period, the Valiants surrendered three straight goals midway through the final frame as Alvernia came roaring back late. Manhattanville would bend but never break, maintaining their lead for the rest of the net before Glynn Robitaille (Northville, Mich./Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL)) scored an empty netter to preserve the win.
  Getting to that point, the Valiants scored three times in the first period with Robitaille bookending the contest by notching the opening tally 1:42 into the game. The senior was able to sneak the puck past Alvernia netminder Brandon Daigle on the team's first shot of the night, assisted by Mason Emoff (Collingwood, Ont./Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL), Pembroke Lumberkings (CCHL)) and Elijah Devereaux (Webster, N.Y./Danbury Jr. Hatricks (NA3HL)). It would be a busy night for the rookie Devereaux, notching assists on four of the Valiants' five goals.

Devereaux continued to play a role in Manhattanville's other two first period scored. At the 8:00 mark, the freshman forward notched the secondary assist on Mason Emoff's (Collingwood, Ont./Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL), Pembroke Lumberkings (CCHL)) tally as Tristan Frese (Broomfield, CO/Jersey Hitmen (NCDC)) collected the primary as the Valiants went ahead 2-0. Then at 17:42, Devereaux would earn the primary assist after firing a shot on net from Troy Crosson (Hatfield, Pa./New Jersey Rockets (NCDC)). Mitchell Watson (Calgary Alberta, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) was on the doorstep of the crease to put in the rebound, putting the home team up by three.

The Valiants added one more in the second, this time with the special teams getting involved. After a 0-for-3 start to the night on the power play, Manhattanville converted on their fourth chance after Logan Vande Meerakker was sent to the box for tripping. It would take nearly all their time with the extra skater to get a shot off, but it was more about quality than quantity as Nick Prestia (Niagara Falls, Ont./Pickering Panthers (OJHL)) fired home a shot from Connor Boyce (St. Albans, Vt./Connecticut RoughRiders (EHL)) and Watson at 18:43 into the period to give the home team a 4-0 lead.

Facing the four goal deficit, Alvernia was able to make a game of Friday's clash after scoring three times in a four minute span. The comeback effort got underway 8:44 into the period as Vande Meerakker made up for his penalty with a power play goal of his own. Kyle Patton added a goal for the Golden Wolves 55 seconds later before Brendan McBride capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play at 12:34 to suddenly make it a one score game again. The Golden Wolves outshot Manhattanville 16-4 over the final 20 minutes, but Alvernia would be unable to find the equalizer. Daigle would come off the ice with 2:10 remaining for an extra attacker before Robitaille found the empty net 19 seconds later to put an end to the comeback threat. The empty netter was assisted by Emoff and Devereaux.

Sebastian Woods (Limehouse, Ontario, Canada/Utica Jr. Comets (NCDC)) got the start in net for Manhattanville, making 30 saves to pick up his fifth win of the season. The rookie goaltender is now 5-0-0 with a 2.37 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage.

The Golden Wolves held a narrow 38-35 faceoff advantage. Raymond Speerbrecker (Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada/Revelstoke Grizzlies (KIJHL)) was the most successful Valiant in the circle, winning 13 draws. The Valiants power play went 1-for-4 on the night while the PK unit finished 5-of-7.

Up Next
The teams run it back tomorrow at 3 p.m. to conclude the weekend series.

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