Neumann continued its slide last weekend as Hobart came into Aston, Pa., and took three of four points. The Knights climbed back into Friday’s contest twice, the second time when Cory Park scored his 10th goal of the season with less than four minutes remaining to tie the game 2-2. Neumann had a power play for the final two minutes of regulation, but couldn’t score and the game ended in a tie after overtime.
Saturday’s game saw Neumann take a 1-0 lead 8:51 into the second period. Hobart tied it up less than two minutes later and then ripped off the next three goals of the game to take a 4-1 victory. Greg Ciciola led the way for the Statesmen with two goals on the weekend.
Marty Ausserhofer made a career high 35 saves in net for Hobart on Saturday.
With this weekend’s result, Neumann can now finish no higher than third place in the standings. Hobart mathematically still has a chance at the regular season title, but it has to sweep Elmira and Manhattanville and get some help over the next two weekends.
Friday’s game between Utica and Manhattanville was a very even affair through the first two periods. Tim Coffman scored for Utica in the first period and Derek Serdachny tallied for Manhattanville in the second. Shots on goal were an even 20 apiece, and then the Valiants came out in the third period and took the game by the horns.
Brett Skalski, Scott Hudson, and Mark Rivera scored during a 3:20 span in the opening five minutes and Manhattanville rolled to a 5-1 victory.
“We played a brilliant road game in a hostile environment,” said Manhattanville coach Eric Lang after Friday’s win. “There is such a fine line between winning and losing in this conference, a missed backcheck or a blown coverage is all it takes. But right now we are doing all of the little things well and have been playing a great game for some time now.”
After being embarrassed in the third period on Friday, Utica came out as a very motivated team on Saturday. The Pioneers ripped in five goals in the second period, including a short-hander and a power-play goal, and romped to a 9-3 win.
The line of Evan Chlanda, Tim Coffman, and Eric Peterson accounted for five of Utica’s goals on Saturday.
The weekend split keeps both Manhattanville and Utica in the hunt for the regular season title, but Elmira now has games in hand on both of them.
