HERSHEY, Pa. – Scoring three straight goals to close out the night, the Manhattanville College men's hockey team collected its fourth-straight win to open up a series at Lebanon Valley on Friday, defeating the Dutchmen 5-2. The Valiants are now 8-12-0 overall on the year and are above .500 in UCHC for the first time since November, now 8-7-0 against the conference.

The Valiants lit the lamp in all three periods and got goals from four different scorers. Raymond Speerbrecker (Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada/Revelstoke Grizzlies (KIJHL)) was Manhattanville's lone multi-goal scorer in the win as the junior notched the first two-goal game of his collegiate career.

The teams went goal-for-goal across the first 38 minutes of play. Corey Popowcer (Parkland, Fla./Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL)) struck first for Manhattanville with his third goal of the year with assists from Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/New Hampshire Avalanche (EHL)) and AJ Bella (Norwalk, Conn./Connecticut Roughriders (EHL)) 14:30 into the opening period. That was the only goal to go on the board across the opening 20 minutes as Tripp Clarke (Cazenovia, N.Y./Northern Cyclones (USPHL Premier)) stopped all eight shots he faced in the first period for Manhattanville while Dutchmen tender Chris Branch made 15 saves.

Scoring opened up in the second period with four total goals, starting with Brenden Yingling finding the equalizer on a Lebanon Valley power play 6:56 into the period from Blake Tosto and Darion Benchich. The score would be even for just 28 seconds before Speerbrecker put the Valiants back in front with his first of the night from Mateichenko and Justin Fernet (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Taft School). The Dutchmen struck again on the power play ten minutes later, this time Ethan Hoover capitalizing on the man advantage from Jered Stevenson to tie the game up 2-2 with 2:10 remaining in the period.

With 31 seconds left on the clock, the Valiants worked some late period magic as Lane Paddison (100 Mile House, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) scored his fifth goal of the year and what proved to be the first game-winner of his career off assists from Mitchell Watson (Calgary Alberta, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) and Ryan McKenna (Spokane, Wash./Sheridan Hawks (NA3HL)). The late goal tilted the ice in favor of Manhattanville over the closing 20 minutes as the Valiants notched a pair of insurance tallies in the third. Speerbecker struck for the second time on the night at 8:38 from Fernet before Fernet himself got into the goal column with a power play goal by way of Mateichenko and Watson at the 12:00 mark to put the visiting team up 5-2, where things would remain for the final eight minutes.

Clarke earned the win in goal for the Valiants, his third straight victory since returning from injury. The sophomore goalie finished with 27 saves, dropping his season goals-against average to 2.74 while his save percentage moves to .902.

In addition to serving as the team's leading goal scorer on the night, Speerbrecker also led the way on the faceoff dot as he accounted for 11 of the Valiants' 25 faceoff wins. Lebanon Valley won 37 draws on the night.

Manhattanville finished 1-for-4 on the power play, firing six total shots. The Dutchmen went 2-for-3 with the man advantage, scoring twice on eight shots.

Up Next
The Valiants look for the sweep and a fifth-straight victory tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.

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