Box Score UTICA, N.Y. – Two goals and an assist from senior co-captain Luc Van Natter (Fort Erie, Ont./Aurora Tigers (OPJHL)) were not enough to overcome #13 Utica on Friday night, as the Manhattanville men's hockey team dropped a 5-3 decision to the host Pioneers in ECAC West Conference action at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.

Despite the loss, Manhattanville (11-10-2, 4-7-2 ECAC West) remains in fourth place in the conference standings thanks to Nazareth's 4-3 win over Neumann, tied with the Knights and one point ahead of the Golden Flyers. A win tomorrow would give Manhattanville the fourth seed and a home game in the first round of the ECAC West Conference Tournament thanks to its tiebreaker edge over Neumann, while a loss would drop the Valiants to the fifth seed and send them on the road for the first round.

Utica (14-5-4, 9-3-1 ECAC West), meanwhile, moves into first place in the conference standings with the win, two points clear of Elmira with one game to go.

Van Natter was the offensive star for Manhattanville on the night, playing a role in all three Valiant tallies and easily forcing the most chances on and around the Pioneer goal. With his two goals, Van Natter moved into seventh place all-time in goals at Manhattanville with 40 for his career and also extends his points streak to nine straight games. Junior assistant captain Anton Racklin (Gothenburg, Sweden/Fairbanks Ice Dogs (NAHL)) had a pair of assists, while senior Mark Rivera (Belmar, N.J./Springfield Pics (EJHL)) scored as well for the visitors.

Utica's Ridge Garbutt matched Van Natter for game-high with three points of his own on two goals and an assist, followed by linemate Trever Hertz with a trio of assists.

Utica struck first 4:27 into the opening period on Louie Educate's sixth of the year, but the Valiants came right back less than three minutes later, needing only 36 seconds of man-up time to even the score. Racklin fired a shot from the blue line and Van Natter managed to get a stick on it in front of the cage and deflect the puck past Nick Therrien for his team-leading 13th goal of the season. Racklin and senior Louie Balzano (Staten Island, N.Y./New York Apple Core (EJHL)) were credited with the assists.

Both goaltenders were called upon to make some pivotal saves after that, including some clutch on-one-one stops by senior netminder Alex Scola (Exeter, N.H./Woodstock Slammers (MJHL)) that allowed the teams to skate into the first intermission knotted up at one. Utica held a 12-10 edge in shots after 20 minutes.

After a back-and-forth first period, the second stanza was dominated by the Pioneers, who scored three times to take a 4-1 lead into the third. After Manhattanville killed off an early penalty, the Valiants went up a man but it was Utica that converted, as Garbutt found himself wide open in front of Scola's cage and then found the net just 12 seconds into the Valiant man advantage. The Valiant defensive breakdowns continued later in the frame, as Adam Graff and Justin Hogan both got one-on-one chances with Scola and put them home to give the home team a three-goal lead after two periods.

Down by three, Manhattanville finally showed some urgency midway through the third period, peppering the Pioneer net and scoring twice to get back into the game. Van Natter scored his second of the night at the 10:34 mark when his shot from a tough angle deflected off a Utica stick and over Therrien's shoulder.

The Valiants had a great chance in the final two minutes, when two UC penalties put the visitors up by two men. The team got one of those goals back with 28 seconds left, when Rivera made a beautiful tip of a Van Natter feed to get the squad back within one. But Manhattanville never got a shot on the subsequent five-on-four advantage, and Garbutt sealed the game with a shorthanded empty-net tally in the waning seconds.

The Manhattanville power play scored twice in six chances, but also ceded two shorthanded goals that ended up being the difference in the game. The penalty kill kept Utica off the board on all three man-down situations.

The Valiants out-shot Utica 15-6 in the third period, giving the visitors a 34-29 edge on the night. Scola played well again but could not stop every point-blank chance, finishing with 24 saves on 28 shots. Therrien turned aside 31 shots for the home team.

Manhattanville and Utica will close out the regular season tomorrow night at the Aud, with the opening faceoff set for 7 p.m.