RYE, N.Y. (Feb. 27) – Senior forward Candice Ellis (Gloucester, Mass.) scored in the Nichols College women’s ice hockey team’s postseason debut Saturday, an 11-1 loss to top-seeded and nationally ninth-ranked Manhattanville at the Playland Ice Casino. The eighth-seeded Bison, just in their second year of varsity status, finish the year with a 4-18-3 record. The regular-season champion Valiants improve to 19-6-1 and advance to the semifinals to host fifth-seeded New England College on Saturday, March 6.
Manhattanville scored two goals in the first, four in the second and five in the third before Ellis put the Bison on the board with 1:42 left to play off an assist from SueEllen Nault (Goffstown, N.H.). The Valiants finished 1-for-2 on the power play and added a pair of short-handed tallies from Katie Little, who led the nation’s top offense with four goals and a pair of assists on the day.
Junior Christine Rigosi (Ridgewood, N.Y.) made 17 saves while allowing five goals in the opening 29 minutes before giving way to senior Melissa Mansfield (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.), who stopped 23 shots and allowed six goals over the remainder of the game. Sophia Kokkonis earned the win for the Valiants with 12 saves.
Nichols finished conference play with a 4-13-2 ledger, improving from its inaugural season by three wins. In ECAC action, the Bison increased their offensive production by 20 goals, and sophomore Mandy Manopla (West Palm Beach, Fla.) scored the program’s first hat trick this season while in conference action.
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