ECAC West league action kicked off this past weekend for every team but Neumann. Elmira and Hobart hosted the action, as Manhattanville and Utica travelled between the two schools.
The Manhattanville Valiants were the cardiac kids of the weekend. They held a one-goal lead midway through the third period Friday night at Elmira, but gave up two late goals to lose 2-1. Rick Schrank tied the game for Elmira at the 11:07 mark and Kevin Willer tallied the game-winner with less than a minute remaining in the contest.
The Valiants headed up Route 14 to Hobart on Saturday. This time, it was Manhattanville’s turn for the late game heroics. The teams were tied 1-1 late in the third period when Evan Michaluck tallied at 15:04 on a breakaway to give the Valiants the lead. Marcus Van Sydow slid in an empty-netter with one second remaining to seal the 3-1 victory.
Elmira held serve, as the Soaring Eagles were the only team to win both of its games. After Friday’s come from behind victory over Manhattanville, the Soaring Eagles took it to Utica from the opening faceoff and jumped up 2-0 in the first 1:40 of the contest. Darcy Vaillaincourt and Tyler Campbell each got things rolling early and Elmira steamrolled to a 6-0 win.
Utica beat Hobart Friday night to at least gain a split on the weekend. Despite spending most of the first 30 minutes of the game in the penalty box, Utica jumped out to an early 1-0 lead off a one-timer goal by Robert Etts. Utica never looked back, but withstood strong Hobart pressure in the third period to take the 3-2 victory.
“Any time you are playing on the road in Hobart it is a challenge,” Utica head coach Gary Heenan said after the game.. “The ice is fast, the barn is small. We were in the box the whole first half. We killed some great penalties. In the third, we hung on to win. It wasn’t pretty, but the guys did a great job and our goaltender played very well.”
Neumann played the only nonconference game in the league this weekend, posting a 5-3 win over Curry. Curry made a run at the Knights in the third period, but couldn’t get the score any closer than 4-3 before Michael Rey added an empty-netter for Neumann to finish off the Colonels.
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