O'Kane Overtime Goals Lifts Wilkes Men's Ice Hockey Over Manhattanville
WILKES-BARRE – Jimmy O'Kane (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame Prep) scores halfway through overtime to help Wilkes University men's ice hockey team win over Manhattanville College 4-3 in United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) action.
Wilkes improves their record to 2-2-1 on the year and 1-1-0 in conference play while the Valiants would fall to 1-2-0 on the season and 1-2-0 in division play. With the overtime victory, Wilkes would earn two points in the conference while Manhatanville would gain one point in the UCHC.
The first period started slow as neither team would be scoreless through the first seven minutes. Manhattanville would break the tie first as AJ Bella would hit the back of the net, with assists from Hayden Taylor and Corey Popcower, at the 7:35 mark to get the Valiants up 1-0. Wilkes would respond nearly two minutes later as Nick Godfrey (Cedar Run, NJ) would get passes from Kyle Mandleur (East Brunswick, NJ) and Matt Carlson (Delmar, NY) to even the score at 1-1.
Manhattanville would respond themselves, with Dylan Pollak scoring at 11:41 to give the Valiants a 2-1 lead. The Colonels would make sure to have the score even going into the end of the first period, as Ben Stefanini (Framingham, MA) would score at the 16:52 mark, with an assist from Joe Johnson (Midland, MI), to head into the first break tied at 2-2.
Neither team would find the net in the second period, with both Garrett Nieto (Yorba Linda, CA) having 15 saves in the period while Tyler Roy had 12 of his own heading into the third period.
The third period continued to be the same for the first half, as neither team found the net with only half of the time left. Ryan Galvin (Atlanta, GA) broke that scoring halt, as he would get an assist from Stefanini at the 11:39 mark to push the Colonels to their first lead of the day at 3-2. Wilkes would benefit from a power play to keep Manhattanville from scoring with the time ticking down. The Valiants would not leave the game to go in regulation, as Nick Prestia would find the net with under two minutes left to tie the game at 3-3 and force overtime.
Having won the faceoff, Wilkes would go on offense for the rest of the period, as Johnson, Billy Berry (Redding, CT), Cam Lowe (Lancaster, MA), and Cole Jungwirth (Bloomington, MN) would all take shots during the extra period. O'Kane would finally find the back of the net at the 2:42 mark in overtime to give the Colonels the 4-3 victory over Manhattanville.
Nieto would finish the game with a season-high 37 saves on the night in the Colonels win.
Wilkes returns to action on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. as they will face Manhattanville in the UCHC competition at the Toyota Sportsplex.
