RYE, N.Y. – Making their 2024 on-ice debut, the Manhattanville College men's hockey team was defeated by SUNY Cortland on Tuesday afternoon, dropping a 5-2 contest. With the loss, the Valiants fall to 4-9-0 overall.

While the Valiants were able to keep pace with the Red Dragons in the first period, Cortland would score four unanswered goals over the final 40 minutes to earn the win.

Mitchell Watson (Calgary Alberta, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) would strike first 2:24 into the contest, lighting the lamp off of assists from Raymond Speerbrecker (Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada/Revelstoke Grizzlies (KIJHL)) and Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/New Hampshire Avalanche (EHL)) to put the Valiants ahead. Cortland's Colby Seitz would then knock a puck past Sebastian Woods (Limehouse, Ontario, Canada/Utica Jr. Comets (NCDC)) in a man advantage to tie it up, 1-1 at 15:44 for the Red Dragons. Manhattanville would then respond with a power play goal of their own to take the lead as Tristan Frese (Broomfield, CO/Jersey Hitmen (NCDC)) would find the back of the net. Mateichenko and Watson would dish out the assists.

The Valiants would be held without a goal through the rest of regulation, only firing off four shots through the second period. Cortland would then score three goals with a pair coming from Devlin O'Kane. In the final 20 minutes, Manhattanville would find some momentum with 14 shots but unable to get another tally on the board. With 15 seconds left, Sutter Donegan would score an empty net goal to secure the 5-2 Red Dragons win.

In net, Woods ended the day with 28 total saves for the Valiants. Despite not scoring, Johno Hoins (Telluride, Colo./The Frederick Gunn School) led the team with six shots on the day.

The Valiants dominated the faceoff circle with 37 draws to the Red Dragons' 25. Speerbrecker won a team-high ten draws, while Ryan McKenna (Spokane, Wash./Sheridan Hawks (NA3HL)) and Caden Eaton (Indian River, Mich./Cornwall Colts (CCHL)) both added eight.

Manhattanville finished 1-for-6 on power play opportunities, scoring on their third man advantage. In total, the Valiants would fire seven shots with an extra skater. Cortland was also held to 1-for-6 on their power play with only four shots.

The Valiants pick up UCHC play as they hit the road to take on No. 7 Utica University this upcoming weekend. Puck drop for Friday is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

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