February 2, 2007

Conor Bradley tallied three assists for the Statesmen. (Photo by Kevin Colton)

GENEVA, N.Y.—Sophomore Jason Merritt (Chapel Hill, N.C.) scored the game-tying goal with 13 seconds left in regulation that forced overtime and led to an eventual 5-5 draw with ECAC West opponent Lebanon Valley College tonight at The Cooler. Hobart moves to 10-5-5 overall and 2-5-3 in conference play, while Lebanon Valley now stands at 2-19-1 overall and 0-11-1 in the league.

Down by two with less than 12 minutes left in regulation, Hobart sophomore Michael Steiner (Shaker Heights, Ohio) cut his team’s deficit to one, tallying off assists by first-year Aleksey Koval (Kiev, Ukraine) and junior Shawn Houde (Manchester, N.H.).

After 10 minutes of back-and-forth play, a penalty was called on the Statesmen, and it looked as if the Flying Dutchmen would come away with their first conference win of the year. A minute later, seniors Conor Bradley (West Hartford, Conn.) and Mike Manos (North Andover, Mass.) set up Merritt’s short-handed game-tying goal, and the teams were headed to overtime.

Houde started the night’s scoring on a power play at 9:09 in the first period, assisted by Bradley and Manos. Bradley finished with three assists, while Manos and Koval each recorded two, and Steiner added one. Sophomores Ryan Adler (Piscataway, N.J.) and Kirk Golden (Vail, Colo.) were responsible for the two Statesmen goals in the second period.

Lebanon Valley’s leading scorer, senior Alex Beatrice (Randolph, N.J.), totaled two goals and two assists on the night, while sophomore Bert Malloy (Cheshire, Conn.) also tallied twice, and sophomore Matt Rowe (Newmarket, Ontario) added three assists. First-year Anthony Longo (Staten Island, N.Y.) chipped in with two assists.

First-year Flying Dutchmen goalkeeper Aaron Miller (Toronto, Ontario) had a stand-out performance, stopping 51 of the 56 shots he faced. Junior Trevor Pieri (Needham, Mass.) tallied 16 saves in 42 minutes in net for Hobart, while sophomore Keith Longo (Hopedale, Mass.) recorded the tie after stopping all six shots he faced in the final 23 minutes.

The Statesmen will meet the Flying Dutchmen again tomorrow at 4 p.m. in The Cooler.