RYE, N.Y. – Three power play goals were not enough for the Manhattanville College men's hockey team on Saturday afternoon as the Valiants dropped a second-straight contest to Saint Michael's to open up the season. Following the 6-4 loss, Manhattanville falls to 0-2-0 on the young season.

The Purple Knights pounced on the Valiants penalty kill unit in the first period as Saint Michael's scored on all three of its power play opportunities across the opening 20 minutes. Brennan Mcfarland, Case Kantgias and Quinn McCarthy each scored for the visitors with the man advantage to provide the Purple Knights a large enough lead they would hold for the duration of the contest.

The Valiants would get on the board with a power play goal of their own 3:28 into the second period. After Zach Taylor was sent off the ice for hooking, Manhattanville scored on its first shot with the man advantage as James Gregory (Darien, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) finished off a sequence of feeds from Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/New Hampshire Avalanche (EHL)) and Caden Eaton (Indian River, Mich./Cornwall Colts (CCHL)).

Taylor made up for his trip to the penalty box with another Purple Knight goal two minutes later to reestablish the two goal advantage. However, the Purple Knights found themselves shorthanded just seconds later as Alex Dalton was called for a slash. The Valiant power play struck again as AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) logged his first goal of the year from Mateichenko and Gregory. The score held steady at 4-2 until 16:28 into the period when Saint Michael's went back up by three off David Ciancio's tally.

The Valiants outshot the Purple Knights 31-7 across the final two periods as Manhattanville threw everything in the direction of Marshall Murphy to look to get back into the game. The home team was able to pull back within one following a Dan Barry (St. Louis, Missouri/Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL)) power play goal from Mateichenko and Eaton before Bella netted his second of the game with 1:03 left in regulation from Corey Popowcer (Parkland, Fla./Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL)) with the net emptied. With the Valiants needing one more goal in the waning seconds to send the game to overtime, the Purple Knights were able to stand firm for the final minute before McCarthy put in an empty netter as the final horn sounded to give Saint Michael's the 6-4 win.

Tripp Clarke (Cazenovia, N.Y./Northern Cyclones (USPHL Premier)) made the start for the Valiants in net, the first start of his collegiate career. He would make nine saves across two periods of play, allowing five goals. Sebastian Woods (Limehouse, Ontario, Canada/Utica Jr. Comets (NCDC)) took over in the crease for the third period, stopping both shots he faced in 18:43 on the ice. Murphy, meanwhile, finished with 37 total saves to log his second win over the Valiants in the last two days.

Bella finished with a team-high 12 shots, firing seven in the third period alone. Barry fired six pucks on target while Johno Hoins (Telluride, Colo./The Frederick Gunn School) added five.

It was another strong performance by Manhattanville on the faceoff battle, going 43-24 on the dot. Eaton won a team-high 13 draws, while Nicolas Rogers won 11 of the 13 draws he took.

The Valiants finished 3-for-6 on the power play, logging nine total shots. Saint Michael's finished 3-for-5 with the man advantage with eight shots.

Up Next
Manhattanville begins UCHC play next weekend when the team hosts Arcadia University for a pair. Puck drop on the series opener is slated for 7 p.m. on Friday.

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