RYE, N.Y. - Three unanswered goals in the second period propelled the Wilkes men's ice hockey team to a stellar come from behind victory against the Manhattanville College Valiants 3-2, opening United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) conference play with a victory.
 
The Colonels earn their third straight victory and move to 3-1-0 on the year and 1-0-0 in conference play, while the Valiants fall to 2-3-0 on the year and take their first loss in conference play and move to 2-1-0.
 
Manhattanville opened the scoresheet in the first period as Artem Mateichenko fired a shot home at 12:09 to put the Valiants on the board first, assisted by Lane Paddison. The Valiants went on the power play in the final minute of the first period and carried that into the second frame along with the one goal lead.
 
Wilkes successfully killed the penalty to open the second period, but Manhattanville found the goal at even strength as Tristan D'Elia doubled the lead at 4:02. Down two goals, the Colonels surged back late in the period as Matt Carlson (Delmar, NY/) lit the lamp for the Colonels at 16:19 to make it a 2-1 game, assisted by Cole Jungwirth (Bloomington, MN/). Cam Lowe (Lancaster, MA/) equalized for the blue and gold at 19:10 off the assist from Nate Terski (North Grafton, MA) to make it a 2-2 game, and 29 seconds later Nick Swain (Jackson, NJ/) put the puck in the net to lift the Colonels to a 3-2 lead as the horn sounded. Jimmy O'Kane (Chicago, IL/Notre Dame Prep) and Steven Spetz (Oak Ridge, NJ/) picked up assists on the goal.
 
A scoreless third period was threatened by a tripping penalty on Max Cocci at 19:41, but the Colonels held on to take the win. Reigning UCHC men's goaltender of the week Jack Perna (Sykesville, MD/) made ten saves in the period to ensure a Colonel victory.
 
Daniel Nau (Wake Forest, NC) led the Colonels in shots on goal, putting all five of his shots true. Billy Berry (Redding, CT) went 11-7 from the faceoff circle, while on defense Jungwirth and Swain both blocked three shots. In goal, Perna turned away 21 shots on the night.
 
For Manhattanville, Frese led the team with four shots on goal while Sebastian Woods made 26 saves.
 
The two teams meet again tomorrow for the second game of the weekend series with puck drop set for 4:30 p.m.