RYE, NY – Utica College men's hockey freshman forward Alex Brissette (Atlanta, GA/Hampton Roads (USPHL)) netted the game-winner with 2:16 left in regulation as the Pioneers skated to a 2-1 victory over ECAC Men's West Conference rival Manhattanville College on Saturday night. Utica rallied from a 1-0 first period deficit and has now won six straight meetings against the Valiants.

The Pioneers are winners of 12 of their last 15 meetings against Manhattanville and Saturday's win completed the regular season sweep of the Valiants.  The Pioneers are now 9-2-3 in their last 14 games and their record moved to 10-6-4 overall on the year.  Utica also improved to 3-5-2 in ECAC West play.  Manhattanville has lost four of its last five games and its record is now 7-9-4 on the year (2-7-1 ECAC West).

After falling behind 1-0 just 3:41 into the contest, Utica's Trent Samuels-Thomas (West Hartford, CT/Omaha (USHL)) fired a shot through traffic and scored his second goal of the season as he knotted the score at 1-1 10:47 into the second period.  Freshman classmates Kevin Valenti (Queensbury, NY/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) and Vinny Stefan (Pittsburgh, PA/Kenai River (NAHL)) assisted on the Pioneers' first goal of the contest.

Both goalies stood strong and preserved the 1-1 score until Brissette netted his first collegiate goal with 2:16 remaining to hand the Pioneers their 10^th win of the season.  Brissette had a blocked shot bounce right back to him and he fired a wrist shot past Manhattanville goalie Brian Fleming for the game-winning score. Brissette's goal was assisted by Stephan and senior assistant captain Justin Hogan (Val Therese, Ontario/Brooks Bandits (AJHL)).  Stefan now has four assists in his last three games and Hogan leads the team with 13 assists this season.

UC goalie Dylan Wells (Nashville, TN/Bonnyville (AJHL)) stopped 33 shots to improve his overall record to 8-3-3 on the season.  Utica out shot Manhattanville 35-34 on the evening.  Brian Fleming also made 33 saves in net for the Valiants.

It was another night of light penalties for the two teams as well, as Manhattanville went 0-for-1 and Utica went 0-for-2 on the man advantage.

The Pioneers return to the ice for House of the Good Shepherd Night at the Aud on Friday night when they host Hobart College at 7 p.m.