ASTON, Pa. – The Manhattanville College men’s hockey team dropped its 2015-16 regular-season finale by the score of 4-1 to Neumann University in ECAC West Conference action on Friday night at Ice Works.
The loss did nothing to the postseason standing of Manhattanville (12-12-1, 8-7-0 ECAC West), which had already locked up the second seed in next week’s conference tournament. The win keeps Neumann (14-8-3, 6-7-2 ECAC West) in fourth place in the conference standings as the teams head into the postseason.
The two teams went into the first intermission tied at one, as both teams converted on their only power-play chances of the first 20 minutes. Jon Low got Neumann on the board first at the 6:28 mark, but the Valiants responded less than seven minutes later when sophomore Anthony Ragone (Babylon, N.Y./Springfield Pics (USPHL)) found the net from classmate Thimmy Garbenius (Nykvarn, Sweden/Sodertalje SK (SWE)) and freshman Cory Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif./Notre Dame Hounds (SJHL)) to knot the score at 13:22.
Neumann scored the only two goals of the middle frame, coming from Jory Mullin at the 11:00 mark and then Shane Topf with less than a minute to go in the stanza.
The Valiants pulled senior Kurt Williams (Rocky Mountain House, Alta./Salmon Arm Silverbacks (BCHL)) with 3:11 to go in the third when the visitors went on their sixth power play of the night, but the team could not convert and Zac Lazzaro added an empty-net score soon after to account for the final score.
The visitors finished the night with a 38-29 edge in shots, including a 16-7 advantage in the third period. Williams made 25 saves for the Valiants, while Mitch Wiebe turned aside 37 shots for Neumann in the win.
Manhattanville will need to wait until Wednesday night to find out its opponent in the ECAC West Tournament semifinals next Saturday. The Valiants will host the highest remaining seed from Wednesday’s first-round games at Playland Ice Casino at 7 p.m. Check GoValiants.com next week for a full tournament preview as the Valiants begin the quest for a fifth ECAC West Tournament championship.
