Box Score

Pine Valley, NY – The Elmira College Men's Hockey team suffered another tough loss to ECAC West foe Manhattanville College Saturday night, this time falling by a score of 7-5. The win improves the Valiants to 7-2-1 and 4-1-1 in ECAC play, while the loss drops the Soaring Eagles to 4-5-0 and 2-4-0 in conference play.

Four power plays were awarded to each team in a penalty-filled first period at the Murray Athletic Center with a combined sixteen penalties being whistled between the two teams. The Soaring Eagles came out with much more intensity to start the game; however, it was the Valiants that struck first. Just seconds after Elmira returned to full strength, Manhattanville's Louis Balzano stood at the point where he took passes from Brendan Turner and Scott Hudson setting up a shot that beat Elmira goalie, Matt Milne '14. The two sides continued to battle for position but Manhattanville would strike again with 3:45 left in the period. This time, Brett Skalski carried the puck into the Elmira zone, moved from left to right in front of Milne and ripped a slap shot that soared over Milne's glove for the goal. Manhattanville took the 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

The second period again provided fireworks, but instead of penalties there were goals. The Soaring Eagles finally got on the scoreboard when Eric David '15 rifled a shot above goaltender, Brian Fleming's shoulder from just inside the blue line. Taylor Love '16 and Jesper Strale '14 picked up assists on the goal. Manhattanville did not let that goal swing the momentum into Elmira's favor, scoring just 10 seconds later. After Ron Smith won the faceoff, Anton Racklin passed the puck to the stick of Adam Young who hit the back of the net with his shot to the right of Milne. Elmira would fight back, scoring just 4 minutes later when Brad Mitchell '16 fed Josh Burnell '15 who found D'Arcy Oakes '13 in front of the net who finished the one-timer to record the Soaring Eagles' second goal of the game. Manhattanville would again counter with their fourth goal of the night. Louie Balzano took passes from Ronnie Smith and Rich Meyer and fired a shot at the net. The puck was redirected by an Elmira defender and flew over Milne's shoulder for the goal. That goal ended Milne's night, being replaced by Ryan deMelo '15 with 8:37 left in the period. The Soaring Eagles closed the period out strong, scoring two unanswered goals to tie the game at 4 going into the 3^rd period. Elmira's third goal came with 6:24 left in the period when Greg Whittle '16 wristed a shot below the stick of the goalie. Strale and Michael Collins '16 were credited with assists. With just under two minutes to play in the second the Soaring Eagles ran the break to perfection to tally their fourth goal of the game. David fed a cross-ice pass to a streaming Burnell who took the puck from right to left, made a move in front of the goalie and then beat him 5-hole for the goal. The score remained 4-4 going into the second intermission.

The Soaring Eagles took their first lead of the game just 18 seconds into the 3^rd period. Whittle passed the puck up to Love who started a 2-on-1 break with Collins. Love fed the puck across the goalie to Collins who finished his shot into the empty net. Elmira would hold the lead for over seven minutes, but Manhattanville's Matt Coleman would breakthrough on a power play for the game-tying goal. Manhattanville continued to pressure the Soaring Eagles, tallying another goal just 1 minute later. Jason Bowles spun around his defender with the puck and finished the backhanded shot just over the glove of deMelo. The dagger came with 1:39 left in the game when Ron Smith scored the seventh and final goal of the game.

Fleming recorded 35 saves between the pipes in the victory. Milne recorded 6 saves and deMelo recorded 14.

The Soaring Eagles return to the ice on Friday, December 7, when they travel to Fredonia to take on the SUNY Fredonia Blue Devils. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m.