The Hobart College hockey suffered its first loss of the season falling 5-3 at Manhattanville tonight. The No. 4 Statesmen are now 3-1-1 overall and 2-1-0 in the ECAC West.
The Valiants improve to 2-3-0 overall and 1-2-0 in conference play. Hobart rallied to tie the game up 3-3 early in the third period, but Manhattanville took back the lead just under a minute later and added an empty net goal for the final score.
Matt Lippa led the Valiants with two goals and an assist. Eric Berglund and Marco Ferraro added a goal and an assist, and Cory Anderson and Tanner Hicks chipped in two assists. Tyler Feaver played all 60 minutes in goal for Manhattanville and made 23 saves.
Eight different Statesmen notched a point in the game. Junior Frank Oplinger (Sewickley, Pa.) played 59:08 in goal and made 22 stops for Hobart.
Manhattanville got on the scoreboard with 33 seconds left in the first period. Ferraro found the back of the net after passes from Lippa and Nolan Marshall. Berglund made it 2-0, 6:44 into the second period. Ferrarro and Fabian Andark were credited with the assists.
Senior Nick Bingaman (Paradise Valley, Ariz.) broke through for Hobart just over a minute later. Junior Tyler Wolf (Naperville, Ill.) set up the play. Lippa gave the Valiants a 3-1 lead with 2:55 to go in the second. Hicks and Berglund earned the assists. However, with 1:15 remaining in the second, senior Bo Webster (Aurora, Ontario) cut Hobart’s deficit back to one. Sophomore Jonas Toupal (Vcelna, Czech Republic) and first-year Zach Sternbach (Loudonville, N.Y.) had the assists.
At 5:08 into the final period, junior Andrew Silard (Greenwich, Conn.) tied up the game at 3-3 for Hobart. It was his first goal of the season and came after passes from first-year Julien Denicourt (Bromont, Quebec) and senior Jon Neal (Encinitas, Calif.). Just under a minute later, Lippa notched his second goal of the night for Manhattanville to take back the lead. Hicks and Anderson logged the assists. Hobart pulled Oplinger with 59 seconds remaining for the extra skater, but the Statesmen were unable to capitalize. Instead, Adam Platt scored an empty net goal for the Valiants after a pass from Anderson.
Manhattanville finished with a slight 27-26 advantage in shots. Hobart went 0-for-6 on the power-play and killed all three of the Valiants’ power-play attempts.
The Statesmen will be back in action tomorrow, Nov. 12, when they travel to take on Neumann in another ECAC West game at 7 p.m.
