RYE, N.Y. - Playing their final home game of the 2024-25 season, the Manhattanville University women's hockey team treated the Playland Ice Casino faithful to a show on Saturday night, knocking off No. 12/12 Utica University in overtime. The win officially secures the Valiants the No. 3 seed in the UCHC Championship tournament as Manhattanville moves to 7-14-2 overall and 5-5-0 in the conference.
Catrina Chinetti (Hyde Park, Mass./Boston Latin Academy / East Coast Wizards) netted the overtime goal for the Valiants going top shelf over Utica goaltender Angela Hawthorne to secure Manhattanville's victory over the Pioneers, snapping an 0-8-1 stretch against Utica since the start of the 2022-23 season.
The win was Manhattanville's first over a ranked opponent since the Valiants took down a 12th-ranked Nazareth team in overtime at the Casino on January 27, 2023.
The Valiants and Pioneers broke the ice in an eventful second period that saw the first scoring of the game. Abby Mellen (Rockport, Mass./Northfield Mount Hermon / Vermont Academy / East Coast Wizards) gave Manhattanville the lead at the 9:43 mark with a quick flick goal from a Taylor Willoughby (Camrose, Alberta, Canada/John Maland) assist. The Pioneers leveled the score with under a second remaining as Jordan Kowalski scored a wraparound goal to top of the second stanza, 1-1.
A nail biting third period would end tied 1-1. The Pioneers could not find the back of the net outshooting Manhattanville 11-3 in the final twenty minutes of regulation. Both ends of the ice would find players in the penalty box two times each delivering power play opportunities that neither team could act upon.
Utica was able to get off two shots in the three-on-three overtime period before Chinetti took, over going coast to coast with an assist from Grace Genest (Wake Forest, N.C./The Gunnery (Conn.)) to net the game-winning goal at the 2:22 mark.
Olivia Cimorelli (West Deptford, N.J./The Hill School / Ironbound Elite) protected the net tonight for the Valiants collecting 38 saves for the night. She gets back into the win column for the first time since Jan. 4, now holding a 3.15 goals against average on her freshman season.
Chinetti led the squad with four shots. Katherine Stahl (Middletown, R.I./Middletown) and Harper Weisbeck (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland) tallied three shots while Willoughby and Mellen each marked two shots for the night.
Annie Niedermier (Calgary, Alberta, Canada/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame) led the Valiants in faceoff wins like she has been all season with 13. Jada Mackinnon (Barrington, Nova Scotia, Canada/King's Edgehill School) notched seven wins and Lillee Dougherty (Wakefield, R.I./Portsmouth Abbey School) accounted for six.
Up Next
Manhattanville heads up to Rochester to face Nazareth for their last regular season games of the season.
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