Valiants Hockey Bests Cortland

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Senior goalie Pierre-Olivier Lemieux earned his first shutout of the season and 13 different Valiant players had at least one point as the Manhattanville men's hockey team cruised to an 8-0 blanking of SUNY Cortland in a testy non-conference matchup on Saturday night at Playland Ice Casino.

Lemieux turned aside all 25 shots he faced to post his first clean sheet of the year and the eighth of his career, extending his own school record. After being tested just twice in the first 20 minutes of play, he turned aside 12 shots in the middle frame and 11 more in the final stanza to complete the shutout.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the ice it seemed like a glorified shooting range targeted at Cortland netminder Jeff Molner, who made 42 saves overall and had at least 10 stops in every frame. Every Valiant had at least one shot on goal in the contest, including 13 different players taking a shot in the first period in which the home team posted a massive 22-2 edge in attempts.

Junior Brett Skalski was the only player to find the net more than once on the night, scoring his second and third goals of the year. His linemates, senior co-captain Evan Michalchuk and sophomore Craig Simchuk both tied for the game-high with three points on the evening, with Simchuk helping on three Valiant tallies and Michalchuk potting a goal and adding two assists.

Thanks to its 20-shot edge in the opening frame, Manhattanville did not waste much time in jumping all over the Red Dragons. At the 2:17 mark of the first period, sophomore Adam Young blasted home a loose puck in the slot to put the home team up early with his second of the year. Skalski closed the frame with both of his tallies, scoring unassisted at the 6:48 mark and then adding a second with 2:15 left in the period from Simchuk and Michalchuk to give Manhattanville a three-goal edge after 20 minutes.

The shots were even at 12 apiece in the second period, and yet it was still all Manhattanville on the scoreboard as the home team added two more to its total. Junior Brendan Turner netted his team-leading seventh goal of the year on the power play 11:06 into the frame, working a nice give-and-go with classmate Scott Hudson and picking the top corner. Sophomore Mark Rivera went the same route 22 seconds later, going high from a tough angle to score his fourth goal of the year.

The third period saw plenty of physical play and penalties from both teams, and yet the Valiants still found time to score three more times to account for the final score. Junior Derek Serdachny scored first four minutes into the period, as he tapped home the rebound of a shot from freshman Paul Sirignano for his first of the year. Michalchuk came back with his first of the year at the 9:41 mark to give the home team a 7-0 lead, and sophomore Brian Elser finally put an end to the scoring with 5:18 left in regulation with a power-play tally.

The Valiants finished the night 2-for-6 on the power play, while also holding Cortland scoreless on six power-play chances.

Manhattanville (5-4-2) will continue non-conference play on Tuesday night, when the Valiants host Curry at 7 p.m. at Playland Ice Casino. GoValiants.TV will have the live video broadcast beginning at 6:50 p.m. SUNY Cortland (4-11-1) will next travel to Oswego on January 20 for a 7 p.m. contest.