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The Manhattanville women's hockey team put an end to the nation's longest unbeaten streak Saturday, as the Valiants defeated Plattsburgh 4-3 behind a hat trick from Amanda Nonis ( Brampton, Ontario ).
Before today's game Plattsburgh hadn't lost in 35 consecutive games, with the
last loss coming on March 18, 2006 as the Cardinals were defeated by Middlebury in the NCAA Championship. In their eight year history, the Valiants were 0-6-3 against the perennial national power.
Shay Bywater put the Cardinals on the board in the first period when she tapped in a rebound from the nation's leading scorer, Danielle Blanchard. Plattsburgh out shot the Valiants 15-4 in the first period.
Manhattanville struck back four minutes into the second period when Danielle Nagymarosi (Uxbridge, Ontario) put the puck past Danielle Beattie to tie the game. As the Valiant power play finished and the Cardinals were returning to full strength, Nagymarosi was able to poke the puck past Beattie in a crowd in front of the Cardinal net. Just five minutes later, Nonis put the puck off the back of Beattie and the puck rolled in, for her first of the game to give the Valiants a 2-1 lead.
Later in the second, Blanchard got past a few Valiant defenders and scored to send the game into the third period tied. In an exciting second period, Manhattanville was able to outshoot Plattsburgh 12-6, while controlling the puck for most of the period.
Halfway through the third period, Nonis lit the lamp again, this time on a pass from Dani Poupart ( Fernie, British Columbia ). Poupart, at the point, faked a shot and fed Nonis in the slot, who beat Beattie for a 3-2 Manhattanville lead.
Just a few minutes later, Plattsburgh 's Megan DiJulio received a five minute major and a game misconduct for checking from behind to put Manhattanville on a long power play where Nonis would get the hat trick as she took a pass from Poupart, who was at the point and beat Beattie for the third time.
Down 4-2 Plattsburgh was able to score a power play goal to put the Cardinals within one goal with five minutes to play. Although the Cardinals had had four shots in the last five minutes, none of them could find the back of the net as Manhattanville would celebrate the win in their home opener.
Sophia Kokkonis ( East Meadow, N.Y. ), receiving her fourth start of the season, made some big saves on the nation's leading scorer, Blanchard, and the rest of the Cardinals to record her third win of the season. She finished with 23 saves.
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