MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Senior co-captain Teagan Waugh (Nanaimo, B.C./Powell River Kings (BCHL)) scored a pair of goals to bookend the scoring for Manhattanville College as the Valiants defeated SUNY Canton by a 4-1 score in the opening round of the 2016 Middlebury College Holiday Classic, held on Friday evening at Kenyon Arena.
Manhattanville (7-5-0) advances to tomorrow’s championship game, where the Valiants will face off for the first time ever with Division II Saint Anselm College, which bested host Middlebury in a shootout after the teams skated to a 3-3 tie after 65 minutes.
Waugh started and ended the Valiant scoring on Friday with his two goals, marking his first multi-goal game of the season and the fourth of his career. Fellow senior assistant captain Adam Platt (Trumbull, Conn./Springfield Pics (USPHL)) and sophomore Eric Berglund (Sollentuna, Sweden/Islanders Hockey Club (USPHL)) also scored for Manhattanville, which improved to 2-0 in first-round games at the Middlebury Holiday Classic (2012).
At the other end of the ice, junior Kyle Redmond (Toronto, Ont./Northfield Mount Hermon) made his first appearance since the opening weekend of the season, turning aside 18 of the 19 shots he faced to pick up his second win in as many outings this year.
Waugh opened the scoring at the 10:05 mark of the first period, as he circled the net and banked home a shot off of Canton netminder Austin Washkurak. Berglund added an unassisted tally with 5:36 left in the period, as he intercepted a pass at the blue line and fired a shot past Washkurak for this third goal of the season.
The only goal of the middle frame came from Platt while the Valiants were down a man, deking past the Canton goalie on a breakaway chance at the 9:48 mark for his team-leading second shorthanded tally of 2016-17.
The teams went nearly 30 minutes without another goal before Waugh capped off the Valiant scoring at 18:06 of the third with another shorthanded score, converting a feed from sophomore Cory Anderson (Bakersfield, Calif./Notre Dame Hounds (SJHL)) on a two-on-one rush.
Canton’s Joe Deveny broke up Redmond’s shutout bid with 38 seconds left in the game, scoring on the Kangaroos’ seventh man-up chance of the night.
Manhattanville finished the night with a 30-19 edge in shots, including doubling up Canton in both the first (8-4) and third (12-6) periods.
The Valiants will face off with the Hawks in the championship game tomorrow at 4 p.m.
