ASTON, Pa. – Following a week away from the ice, the Manhattanville College men's hockey team returned to action on Friday evening, defeating Neumann 5-2. With the win, the Valiants improve to 7-9-2 overall and 6-6-1 against the UCHC.

Both teams would light the lamp once in the first period as the Valiants and Knights each put ten pucks on net across the opening 20 minutes. It would be Manhattanville striking first as Mason Emoff (Collingwood, Ont./Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL), Pembroke Lumberkings (CCHL)) was able to beat Neumann's Cole DeFazio in net for his seventh goal of the season. Raymond Speerbrecker (Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada/Revelstoke Grizzlies (KIJHL)) and AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) would be credited with assists on the play, the third helper of the season for both skaters.

Neumann would respond midway through the period as the Valiants got into penalty trouble with back-to-back calls sending a pair to the box. With a 5-on-3 advantage, Tyler Kulas was able to score the equalizer from Luke Croucher and Nate Dunning at 11:39.

It was a rapid start to the second period as a pair of goals were scored in the first 86 seconds out of the locker room. The home team claimed their first lead of the night as Tyson Roher scored from TJ Ezzrd 53 seconds after the initial faceoff. The lead would not hold for long as Hayden Taylor (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Islanders Hockey Club (NCDC)) got the Valiants back even at 1:26 with his sixth goal of the year, an unassisted tally. The score would hold even at 2-2 until the 15:28 mark when Emoff struck again with his second of the night as Bella and Speerbecker collected the assists once again to give the Valiants a 3-2 advantage heading into the third.

Speerbrecker would get into the goal column 5:25 into the third as Emoff picked up his third point of the night with an assist. The Valiants would put the game away at the 17:43 mark after Dan Barry (St. Louis, Missouri/Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL)) scored an empty netter, his first collegiate goal which brought the score to the 5-2 final.

Neumann would outshoot the Valiants 34-31 on the night, but Tyler Roy (Brighton, MI/Neumann University) would turn away 32 shots to secure his first win in net of the season. The senior netminder played all 60 minutes, lowering his goals-against average to 3.44 as he sports a .905 save percentage.

The Golden Knights dominated the faceoff circle, going 42-25 on the draw. Josh Fletcher (Calgary, Alb./Kindersley Klippers (SJHL)) had a team-high six draw wins on the night.

Manhattanville finished 0-for-3 on the power play, logging eight shots with the man advantage. Neumann was held to 1-of-4 with ten total shots on their power play chances.

Up Next
The teams will conclude their series tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.

VALIANTS on SOCIAL MEDIA For the latest on Manhattanville Athletics, follow the Valiants via social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.  #WeAreValiant #GoValiants