GENESEO, N.Y. – Despite coming back to erase a two-goal deficit in the second period, the Manhattanville University men's hockey team succumbed to second-seeded SUNY Geneseo in Saturday night's UCHC Semifinals tilt, falling by a final of 5-2. The Valiants' postseason run comes to a close following the loss, ending the season with a 10-16-1 record overall.

The opening ten minutes was dominated by Manhattanville, with the Valiants firing 13 shots on net to open up the night. Geneseo's Adam Harris survived the barrage and turned away all 13, including seven on Manhattanville's opening power play of the contest. After withstanding the attack, the Knights got an opening after the Valiants were sent to the penalty box for holding. Geneseo took 48 seconds with man advantage to fire their first shot with the man advantage, as Zach Purcell put the home team up from Nicholas Kovacs and Robert Gatewood at 10:56.

After scoring on just their third shot on target on the night, Geneseo came to life in the second half of the first period, putting nine more pucks on net to close out the opening stanza. The Knights struck again at 15:24 off a Peter Morgan goal from Jack McDonald to take a two-goal lead into the first intermission.

With the way the Valiants were buzzing in the first period, outshooting Geneseo 18-12, it felt it was only a matter of time before Manhattanville got on the scoreboard. The game plan paid off 11:31 into the second period as Artem Mateichenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/New Hampshire Avalanche (EHL)) finished off an assist from Ryan McKenna (Spokane, Wash./Sheridan Hawks (NA3HL)) to slice the Knight lead in half. Five minutes later, it as Manhattanville striking again, this time as Parker Chadwell (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Bay Juniors (USPHL)) put the finishing touches on a sequence set up by helpers from Mateichenko and Tyler Rolsten to make it a brand new game with 3:35 left in the second period.

With his two-point performance, Mateichenko reaches 100 points for his collegiate career in his 100^th game skating for the Valiants. The program's all-time leading assist leader departs the team sixth all-time in points, becoming the first Valiant to reach the century mark since Matt Lippa '19.

After watching their lead go up in smoke, the Knights settled down to retake the lead with 1:33 left in the period. Bryce Howard scored from Kovacs and Sterling Wolters to put Geneseo ahead once again entering the final 20 minutes.

Manhattanville was unable to replicate the heroics from the period prior as the Knights outshot the Valiants 14-9 to close out the night. Geneseo added an insurance tally off Morgan's second of the night, a power play strike 2:36 into the period. The lead held at 4-2 before the Valiants pulled William Billequey (Montreal, Quebec/Vermont Lumberjacks (EHL)) out of the net for an extra attacker with 2:49 left to play, but the Knights' empty net goal from Filip Wiberg put the game on ice and sends Geneseo to the UCHC Finals in the team's first season in the conference.

Billequey ended the night with 42 saves to put the finishing touches on an impressive sophomore season. Entering the year with just four games played in his rookie season, Billequey developed into one of the UCHC's top goaltenders this year. The sophomore ends the year with 508 saves, a 2.56 goals against average, and a .930 save percentage. His save percentage is tied for the highest single-season mark in program history with Alex Scola from the 2012-13 campaign.

The Valiants were outshot 47-36 on the night. Chadwell, Justin Fernet (Sherbrooke, Quebec/Taft School), Elijah Devereaux (Webster, N.Y./Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks (NA3HL)) and Mitchell Watson (Calgary, Alberta, Canada/Canmore Eagles (AJHL)) each finished with four shots on net for Manhattanville.

Geneseo won the battle of the faceoff dot, 33-30. McKenna was the Valiants' top performer on the draw with nine wins.

The Valiants finished 0-for-3 on the power play, finishing with 10 shots with the man advantage. Geneseo went 2-for-4 with seven shots.

The Knights head to Utica next Saturday for the UCHC Finals at 7 p.m.

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