MILTON, Mass. – In a non-conference match-up in men's ice hockey action on Friday night in Milton, Mass., Curry College lost to Manhattanville, 7-1. With the loss, the Colonels fell to 2-8-1 overall. The Valiants improved to 7-5 on the season.
Freshman Nolan Marshall (Drumheller, Alta.) scored the first two goals of his career to lead a potent Manhattanville attack against the Colonels.
Six different Valiants found the back of the net in the win, led by Marshall's two goals and a game-high three points. Juniors Anton Racklin (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Jake Mooney (Toronto, Ontario) both had a goal and an assist while senior Craig Simchuk (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and junior Kevin Struempfler (Lincoln University, Pa.) both had two points as well on a pair of assists each. Senior Luc Van Natter (Fort Erie, Ontario), junior Eric McClure (Mitchell, Ontario) and freshman Phil Dinner (Simsbury, Conn.) also put goals home for the visitors in the romp.
Manhattanville wasted little time finding the net on its first man-up chance of the game, as Racklin found the net at the 4:03 mark. Simchuk won the faceoff back to the point for Racklin, who evaded a defender before wristing a shot top corner over the shoulder of Derek Mohney (Amherst, N.Y.) for his fourth goal of the year and his third man-up tally of 2013-14.
The Valiant special teams struck again in a different fashion less than three minutes later, as this time it was a short-handed tally that doubled the lead. Simchuk took a pass and came down the right side and, even though his shot was stopped by Mohney, he forced a rebound that was easily cleaned up by Van Natter for his sixth tally of the year.
Having scored once man up and man down, Mooney completed the trio with an even-strength tally of his own, taking an outlet pass from Racklin and ending Mohney's night by beating him high. The goal was Mooney's team-leading seventh tally of the season and forced Curry to call for relief between the pipes.
Manhattanville had its best period in the middle frame, outshooting Curry 12-3 and adding three more goals. Dinner and Marshall bookended the frame with the first goals of their respective careers, with Dinner starting the scoring by streaking in from the blue line to take a feed from Mooney and beat backup netminder Brett Sinclair (St. Catharines, Ontario) at the 1:51 mark.
McClure made it 5-0 by redirecting home a shot by freshman Anthony Luzzi (Branford, Conn.) with 5:13 gone by in the period, and Marshall increased the lead to six on the power play when he put home the rebound of a Struempfler shot.
After Brandon Gilmore (Quincy, Mass.) broke up the Valiant shutout bid with 12:13 remaining in regulation, Marshall added his second of the night at the 9:34 mark to push the Valiant lead back to six, where it stood for the rest of the night.
Freshman Sinclair made 14 stops in 40:00 minutes in net. Junior Mohney made four saves in 20:00 minutes. Senior Alex Scola (Exeter, N.H.) was not tested often but played well, turning aside a pair of Colonel breakaway chances and finishing the night with 15 saves on 16 shots.
Curry's next game is away at Connecticut College on Saturday, January 11 at 7:00 p.m. Manhattanville hosts SUNY Cortland on Saturday, January 11 for a 7:30 p.m. game start.
