RYE, N.Y. – A power play goal with just 19 seconds remaining in regulation felled the Manhattanville College men's hockey team on Friday night, dropping a UCHC tilt against Chatham University, 6-5. With the loss, Manhattanville drops to 8-7-3 on the season and 5-6-3 in conference play.

With 51 seconds to play and the score tied at 5-5, AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) was sent off the ice for interference, giving the visiting Cougars the man advantage late. The first Chatham shot with the man advantage was blocked, but the second had eyes as Zack Conner came up with his second goal of the night to earn the win for the visitors.

Scoring was plentiful right from the opening drop, as it took just 13 seconds for the Valiants to find the back of the net. Jamie Dorsey (Wilbraham, Mass./Northfield Mount Hermon) finished an assist from Alex Rowella (Ridgefield, Conn./Holy Cross (H.S.)) to put Manhattanville up extremely early, setting the tone for what would become an offensive eruption.

The Cougars responded in turn with three unanswered goals in a four minute span. Chatham tied the game at 4:03 on a Carson Grainer shot before Kenneth Gill put the visiting squad ahead two and a half minutes later. At 8:10, Andrew Warhoftig struck for the Cougars to put the Valiants behind the eight ball, trailing 3-1.

The first period was still far from over, as the Valiants pulled back within one at the 10:33 mark. After setting up the initial goal, Rowella opted to get into the scoring column himself, finishing feeds from Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/NVK Dominanta) and Connor Boyce (St. Albans, Vt./The Winchendon School) on the power play.

Defense finally got control of the pace to close out the final nine and a half minutes of the first before the two teams scored another three goals in the first five minutes of the second. Josh Fletcher (Calgary, Alb./Central Memorial) tied the game back up for Manhattanville at 1:27 courtesy of assists from Ben Steele (Auburn, Maine/Edward Little) and Troy Crosson (Hatfield, Pa./Pennridge). The Cougars went back in front two minutes later as Conner was able to convert on the power play opportunity, scoring with the man advantage from Warhoftig and Matthew Doyle. Rowella came into play again at 4:20, scoring his second of the night on a pass from Niko Happo (Kauniainen, Finland/Haukilahti Upper Secondary School) to tie the game up once again at 4-4.

The Valiants would claim their first lead since the early first as Fletcher struck again 50 seconds into the third. The lead only held for the next six minutes, before Warhoftig connected with his second tally of the night to tie the game back up at 5-5 on the power play, ultimately setting the stage for Conner's final second heroics.

It was a rough night to be a goaltender with the 11 total scores allowed. For the Valiants, Tyler Roy (Brighton, MI/Brighton High School) mad 19 saves in the loss, while Chatham's Ricardo Gonzalez secured the win with a 24 save effort.

Manhattanville dominated the faceoffs, 40-26. Rowelle and Jarod Lavallee (Cumberland, Maine/Greely) both won 14 faceoffs for the Valiants. The power play units converted on a 100 percent success rate on the night, with the Cougars scoring on all three of their power play chances and the Valiants going 1-1 with the man advantage on their side.

Up Next
Manhattanville aims to shake this one off quickly, returning to action tomorrow at 3 p.m. against Stevenson.

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