RYE, NY - With help from the southpaw, Nicholas Rogers, the Manhattanville University men's hockey team routed the Connecticut College Camels, 5-2, on Tuesday night to wrap up their home and home series. With the victory, the Valiants climb to 4-8-1 on the season, wrapping up the non-conference slate.
Rogers, who leads the conference in goals and goals per game, with 12 and .96, respectively, propelled the offensive output on the night with his first career hat-trick scoring in all three stanzas of the contest.
Artem Mateichenko also turned into a performance to remember, providing an assist on all three of Rogers tallies, tying for the Valiants lead with ten assists on the season.
Manhattanville got the scoring started in the contest as fans were still finding their seats, with the top line striking from the stick of Rogers, getting a feed from Johno Hoins and Mateichenko, lighting the lamp 1:44 into the first period, for the 1-0 lead. Just a few minutes later, another lefty would pounce on a goal-scoring opportunity, Mitchell Watson finished a play from Raymond Speerbrecker and Lane Paddison, for Paddison's tenth assist on the season, giving the Valiants the 2-0 as the game headed into the first intermission.
The scales swung back in the favor of the Camels, when the Valiants found themselves in a 4-on-3 situation, leading to Quinn Kennedy finding an open lane to slice the lead in half, 2-1. A short time later, Wade Volo deflected a puck past the Valiant netminder, to even things up at 2-all.
Rogers netted his second tally 16:29 into the second to reestablish the Manhattanville lead, Mateichenko, James Gregory assisted the play to put the lead at 3-2 as the game headed into the final period.
As the third period was underway, Tristan D'Elia gave the Valiants a cushion with help from his defensemen, Corey Popowcer and Zach Choueiri, eventually making way to Rogers' final marker, from his post on the right side of the ice, powering it past the goaltender and putting the Camels to rest for a final score of 5-2.
William Billequey got the nod in net for the Valiants, saving 29 shots sent his way. The sophomore brought his season total 244 saves for a .938 save percentage.
Rogers, D'Elia, and Paddison paced the offensive output for the Valiants, with Rogers firing eight shots, and four apiece for D'Elia and Paddison.
Hoins led the Valiants in the center circle, with twelve wins in the circle, followed by Paddison with eight.
The Valiants batted .500 on the power play, going one-for-two on the day with the man advantage firing six shots. On the contrary, the Camels also netted a power play goal, turning in a one-of-three performance with five shots.
Up Next
The Valiants now turn their sights to the number two team in the nation, welcoming Utica for a home-and-home weekend series, starting at Playland Ice Casino on Friday at 7:00 p.m.