READING, Pa. – Snapping a five-game losing streak, the Manhattanville College men's hockey team opened up December with a victory on Friday night, besting UCHC foe Alvernia by a final of 2-1. The Valiants improve to 3-7-0 overall and 3-4-0 in conference play following the win.

Both of Manhattanville's tallies came in the first period, just enough to hold on for the win. The icebreaker came at the 10:29 mark off the stick of Lane Paddison (100 Mile House, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) who finished off a pass from Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/New Hampshire Avalanche (EHL)) for his second goal of the season. The score held at 1-0 when Christian Dahl was charged with the Wolves' first penalty of the night for interference, giving the Valiants' power play their first chance at 18:36. The unit fired three shots in 46 seconds, with the final coming from AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) and finding the back of the net. Paddison and Mateichenko drew the assists on Bella's third of the year as he made his return to the lineup for the first game since Nov. 4 after suffering an injury against Arcadia.

Sebastian Woods (Limehouse, Ontario, Canada/Utica Jr. Comets (NCDC)) was the man in the crease on Friday night for the Valiants, standing tall in a shutdown first period. The sophomore goaltender made 15 stops in the opening frame, including eight during Alvernia's three first period power play opportunities. Despite having the strength in numbers, the Wolves' offense was held quiet over the opening 20 minutes.

Both teams would fire 21 shots on net across the final two periods, with only Alvernia finding the netting. The Wolves broke up the shutout at 5:13 in the second courtesy of Jordan Gagnon, scoring from Sawyer Senio and Sean Kenny.

That would be the lone blemish on Woods' night, as he stopped 11 of the 12 shots he faced in the second before stopping all nine in the third. The 35 saves set a new season-high for the sophomore netminder as his save percentage climbs back above .900 with his third win of the year.

Manhatanville dominated the faceoff battle to the tune of a 54-25 margin. It would be Paddison leading the way with 17 faceoff wins, while Caden Eaton (Indian River, Mich./Cornwall Colts (CCHL)), Raymond Speerbrecker (Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada/Revelstoke Grizzlies (KIJHL)) and Elijah Devereaux (Webster, N.Y./Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks (NA3HL)) all won double digit draws themselves.

The Valiants ended the night 1-for-5 on the power play with 10 shots while Alvernia went 0-for-5 with 14 shots.

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

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