READING, Pa. - The Manhattanville College men's hockey season came to an end on Wednesday night as the Valiants were bested by fourth-seeded Alvernia, 6-1, in the Quarterfinals round of the UCHC Championship. Manhattanville concludes the 2023-24 campaign with an overall record of 9-17-0, and a 9-11-0 mark in conference play, earning the fifth seed for the UCHC Tournament. 

The opening ten minutes of the contest was deadlocked, as neither team could break through the opposing defensive efforts. With 10:09 elapsed in the first period, the Golden Wolves broke the scoreless tie, as Logan Vande Meerakker finished off a sequence from Andrew Deschenes and Max Cole to mount the 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, the Valiants would answer back with a tally of their own, Ryan McKenna (Spokane, Wash./Sheridan Hawks (NA3HL)) found his eight-goal since the start of the new year, from Nicholas Rogers (Broad Channel, N.Y./Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks (NA3HL)) and Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/New Hampshire Avalanche (EHL)), for Mateichenko's league-leading 24th assist of the season, to tie the contest at one-all heading into the first intermission. 

Twenty-one seconds into the second period, the Golden Wolves would strike again with Matthew Imbriano putting Alvernia back ahead, 2-1, and proving to be a fatal blow for the Valiants. Manhattanville would unleash 16 shots in the second period, with AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) firing a team-high three shots, seeing all turned away by the Golden Wolves netminder. 

In the final period, Alvernia would open the period lighting the lamp once again, this time just over a minute after puck drop with Sawyer Senio finding the back netting to put the score to 3-1 in the Golden Wolves favor. The floodgates would open later in the third period, as Jordan Gagnon pushed the score to 4-1 with 13:53 elapsed in the final stanza to pin the contest at 4-1. Alvernia would score twice more in the remaining seven minutes of the contest to see the final score sit at 6-1 in the Golden Wolves favor. 

Sebastian Woods (Limehouse, Ontario, Canada/Utica Jr. Comets (NCDC)) was tabbed with the loss in net for the Valiants, as the sophomore made 32 saves in the contest. Woods totaled 537 saves over his 20 games played in the crease for the Valiants, for a .901 save percentage. 

Manhattanville held a slight advantage over their counterparts in the faceoff circle, out beating the Golden Wolves 34-31. McKenna paced the field with 17 wins, while Caden Eaton (Indian River, Mich./Cornwall Colts (CCHL)) followed suit with 13 wins. 

The Valiants outshot their counterparts, 44-38, in the contest, with McKenna once again leading the Valiants with eight, as Bella followed closely behind with five. Seven Valiants finished with three shots in the contest. 

Manhattanville went 0-for-3 on opportunities with an extra skater, only firing three shots in the six minutes with the man advantage. The Valiants penalty kill unit hit at 100 percent, killing off both penalties faced, turning away all five shots faced. 

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