ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College men’s hockey team jumped out to a 3-1 lead midway through the second period, but Nazareth College scored the final four goals of the game to deal the Valiants a 5-3 defeat in both teams’ ECAC West Conference opener on Friday night at Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex.
Most of the damage for Nazareth (1-1-1, 1-0-0 ECAC West) was done by Dominik Gabaj, who scored the final three goals of the game all in the third period. J.R. Wojciechowski also scored late in the second period for the home team as part of its four unanswered goals.
Sophomore Marco Ferraro (Toronto, Ont./St. Michael’s Buzzers (OJHL)) led Manhattanville (1-2-0, 0-1-0 ECAC West) with a career-best three points for the second straight game, scoring once and adding a pair of assists. Senior co-captain Teagan Waugh (Nanaimo, B.C./Powell River Kings (BCHL)) and senior assistant captain Adam Platt (Trumbull, Conn./Springfield Pics (USPHL)) also scored for the Valiants in the loss.
After the teams skated through a scoreless first period, the offense finally arrived in the middle frame when five goals were scored. Waugh opened the scoring at the 2:34 mark, finding the net on a four-on-three power play from Ferraro and fellow senior co-captain Nolan Marshall (Drumheller, Alta./Camrose Kodiaks (AJHL)). Nazareth’s Brad Pizzey tied the game at 5:51 of the period, but Ferraro answered 28 seconds later with his third of the year to put the visitors back in front.
Platt made it a two-goal Valiant lead less than two minutes later with another power-play tally, this from sophomore Eric Berglund (Sollentuna, Sweden/Islanders Hockey Club (USPHL)) and Ferraro at the 7:45 mark. Wojciechowski got his team back within a goal with 5:54 remaining in the middle frame, and the two teams headed to the third period with Manhattanville holding a 3-2 advantage.
Gabaj took over from there, scoring twice in less than two minutes early in the period to give Nazareth a 4-3 lead with 14:54 left on the clock. Almost the entire remainder of regulation was a battle of special teams thanks to multiple penalties, and Gabaj eventually finished off his hat trick with a power-play empty-netter in the final minute.
Both teams scored twice on the man advantage, with the Valiants going 2-for-8 with the extra skater and Nazareth scoring twice on 11 chances.
Brandon Lane made 26 saves to earn the win for the Golden Flyers, while sophomore Tyler Feaver (Whitby, Ont./Whitby Fury (OJHL)) made 27 saves and ceded four goals to suffer the loss for the Valiants.
Manhattanville will look to again get back to .500 tomorrow night, when the Valiants travel to #13/14 Utica College for a 7 p.m. faceoff.
