RYE, N.Y. – A second-straight night with a hat trick leading the way for the attack allowed the Manhattanville College men's hockey team to complete a series sweep of Neumann, defeating the Knights by a final of 4-3. The Valiants have won a season-high three straight games to climb to 7-12-0 overall and back to .500 in UCHC action with a 7-7-0 record, pushing the team up to sixth in the conference standings.

After Mitchell Watson (Calgary Alberta, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) had a three-goal performance in yesterday's win over the Knights, it was AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) with a hat trick on Saturday to maintain the team's recent winning ways. It was Bella's third multigoal game of the season and his first career hat trick.

The Valiant senior scored his first of the night 4:28 into the game as he finished off a sequence set up by Lane Paddison (100 Mile House, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) and Watson. The Knights pulled even after Brady Mistler found the back of the net from Luke Croucher at the 13:05 mark. Bella would then put the Valiants back in front at 17:47, this time being assisted by Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/New Hampshire Avalanche (EHL)).

The trading of goals continued into the second as the score would be evened up once again 4:17 into the period as Tyson Rohrer scored from Ben Gibbons. The Valiants would get their first non-Bella goal as the game reached the halfway point with Mateichenko scoring his fourth tally of the season, an unassisted score that once again put the Valiants in front at 9:55. A minute and a half later, Bella earned the hatty as Mateichenko and Justin Fernet (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Taft School) set up the score. Bella is the first Valiant to reach 10 goals on the season, while Mateichenko reaches 20 points on the year with his 16^th assist of his junior campaign.

All three of Bella's goals came on the power play, the second time this year Manhattanville scored three times with the man advantage. The first occasion came back in the second game of the season on Oct. 28 against Saint Michael's.

Gibbons scored an unassisted goal at 16:13 in the second to pull the Knights back within one, but after the four goal second period, both goaltenders put up scoreless thirds. Sebastian Woods (Limehouse, Ontario, Canada/Utica Jr. Comets (NCDC)) made ten saves over the final 20 minutes as part of his 24 stop performance to earn the win for Manhattanville, his first victory since Dec. 2 against Alvernia. The sophomore goalie now holds a 3.50 goals-against average with an .895 save percentage.

Paddison and Raymond Speerbrecker (Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada/Revelstoke Grizzlies (KIJHL)) won 11 faceoffs each for the Valiants, with Neumann winning 38 draws to Manhattanville's 33.

The Valiant power play finished 3-for-5 on the night with seven shots while their penalty kill was also strong, holding the Knights scoreless on their five power plays, allowing six shots.

Up Next
The Valiants head to Pennsylvania next weekend to play a pair at Lebanon Valley. The opener will take place on Friday night at 7 p.m.

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