![\"colorscans\/20012002\/manh-rit-0105.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/images\/colorscans\/20012002\/manh-rit-0105.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\nWith Peczka out of the picture, the starting goaltender position is open. Senior Jeremy Hill, junior Chad Killam, and freshman Jay Chrapala all have a shot at earning the position.<\/p>\n
Also missing from the team this year is freshman standout Lee Stubbs. Stubbs was a speedy little forward, and was tied for third in scoring last season, tallying 11 goals and 18 assists. But he didn’t return to campus this fall for the start of classes.<\/p>\n
Home Early, Away Late <\/h4>\n
Manhattanville’s schedule this season is one of extremes. The Valiants open up with four of their first five games on the road, including a tough early-season pair of league games at RIT and Hobart.<\/p>\n
“The weekend you can’t help but see is that RIT\/Hobart weekend right off the bat,” said Levinthal.<\/p>\n
Then Manhattanville gets to enjoy the cozy confines of its new home rink (more on that shortly) for seven straight games before the Christmas break.<\/p>\n
“Part of that, with the ECAC West, is that we don’t have a lot of flexibility to get home games,” said Levinthal. “I do like the idea of playing home games early in the year and getting off to a good start, though.”<\/p>\n
The Valiants pay for that long pre-holiday homestand late in the season. After the holidays, Manhattanville begins the second half of the season at the Plattsburgh tournament and then stays on the road for seven of its remaining 12 games.<\/p>\n
“We have New England College in the first game of the Plattsburgh tournament, and it will be a tough game,” said Levinthal. “We’ve never been up [to Plattsburgh], and as we try to upgrade our schedule it is a good opportunity for us”<\/p>\n
Levinthal hasn’t been a big proponent in the past of the new ECAC West travel partner system. “We have had discussions about playing each other three times per season, which I kind of prefer,” said Levinthal. “But we’re OK with the travel partner system.”<\/p>\n
New Home<\/h4>\n
After playing the last three seasons at Skate Nation Arena at New Roc City, Manhattanville moved a few miles northeast to Playland Ice Casino in Rye, N.Y. The new home of the Valiants is closer to campus, and has superior amenities for the team. Playland has been the practice facility for the New York Rangers since 1979.<\/p>\n
“The Rangers built their own facility, so we moved into where they were,” said Levinthal. “It has a very different kind of feel from New Roc. We moved into the Rangers locker room, which will be the envy of most D-III teams. The rink is painted in Manhattanville colors, and they have done a lot of things to make it feel like home for us. The ice size is a little different, at 208’x77′. It will be a real tough place for people to play.”<\/p>\n
Long and narrow, with an immense neutral zone, the rink at Playland will most definitely give Manhattanville a home-ice advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year is when life gets interesting for the Manhattanville hockey team, its coach Keith Levinthal, and its fans. Manhattanville’s fourth recruiting class enters this year as freshmen. Over the past three years, the team has had a taste of some success and some frustrations. The Valiants reached the ECAC West championship game once (2000), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n