ANNVILLE, Pa. – For the second time in three weeks, the Manhattanville College men’s hockey team has earned a sweep of the Middle Atlantic Conference Men’s Hockey Player of the Week awards, the conference announced on Monday. Senior Stephen Gaul (Downers Grove, Ill./Springfield Pics (USPHL)) earned MAC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the first time, while junior Tyler Feaver (Whitby, Ont./Whitby Fury (OJHL)) picked up his third MAC Defensive Player of the Week honor of the year.
The Valiants got back on the winning track with a pair of conference wins over the weekend, defeating Chatham University by a 5-2 score on Friday before posting a 3-1 victory over Lebanon Valley College on Saturday evening.
Gaul played a role in five of Manhattanville’s eight goals this weekend, scoring three times and adding two assists for a five-point weekend. The senior opened the week with two assists, including a helper on the game-winning goal early in the third period, in Friday’s win over the Cougars. He then provided all the offense the Valiants needed against the Dutchmen with his first career hat trick, including the game-winning goal with less than a minute left in regulation.
Thanks to his big week, Gaul has moved into third place on the team with eight points this season, while his six goals rank second on the team and fourth in the MAC so far in 2017-18. In 87 career games as a Valiant, Gaul has scored 33 goals with 27 assists for 60 points, leading all active players in all three categories.
Feaver had another solid outing in his lone appearance of the week on Saturday, turning aside 23 of the 24 shots he faced in a key Middle Atlantic Conference win over LVC. The junior stopped seven of the eight shots he faced against the potent LebVal power-play unit, limiting the Dutchmen to one goal on six man-up chances.
Feaver has stepped up his game so far as a junior, posting a 1.97 goals against average and .929 save percentage in nine starts. He leads the conference in goals against average and ranks second in save percentage, helping to backstop the best scoring defense in the MAC.
Manhattanville will take the rest of the 2017 calendar year off from competition before returning to action on January 2, 2018, when the Valiants begin a stretch of six straight non-conference games against Connecticut College at Playland Ice Casino at 7 p.m.
