Manhattanville avenged its shutout road loss of 10 days ago with its first-ever home ice victory over Elmira.
In the 7-3 victory, the Valiants (6-2) pulled away from the Soaring Eagles (4-3) with a 4-1 lead by the 10:57 mark of the second period. Senior Jessica Temesy scored the fourth goal, the eventual game-winner, when she collected the rebound of a Jessica Zimmerman slapshot from the left faceoff circle.
Temesy’s five goals in the last three games have invigorated the team offense. She had previously been playing defense due to team injuries.
“I feel more comfortable at forward,” Temesy said. “I feel like our lines are clicking really well.”
The Valiants came out flying in the first period, although they trailed briefly when Elmira’s Catherine Shears cashed in a powerplay goal at 11:18 of the first period. Aggressive forechecking by Cory Alcorn and Jesse Garner was rewarded when Garner stuffed her own rebound past Elmira’s Cara McGurry to tie the score 1-1.
Manhattanville senior Jami Grasby gave the Valiants a lasting lead and some insurance as she continued her torrid scoring pace, following her hat trick Sunday. Grasby netted her first past Elmira goalie Cara McGurry on a feed from Dani Poupart for the 2-1 lead in the final minute of the first period, shortly after Elmira finished killing off three penalties.
“We broke it out nice,” Grasby said. “Nice pass from Poupi off the boards, brought it in and shot it top left, just above [McGurry’s] shoulder.”
“Jami Grasby is the heart and soul of our team…when she is playing well the team is playing well,” said Manhattanville coach Nicole Kirnan. “I was very happy the way we came out in the first period… We built off the solid first… We wanted this game, this is what we have been focusing on since we played two weeks ago.”
Elmira seemed flat after their weekend visit to Middlebury and playing on the vast (200×95) Kenyon Arena ice surface.
“With a young team change is very tough,” said Elmira coach Paul Nemetz-Carlson. “The more important thing was the level of confidence and comfort Manhattanville had in their own rink. Today we ended up in traffic, they clogged the middle really well, they created their own space really well.”
Elmira has now dropped three of four through a brutal schedule, including D-I RPI and No. 1 Middlebury.
“I think highs and lows were a big part of this, how to emotionally respond to them is something we need to learn,” he said. “This was the great thing of playing three games against top 10 teams in four days. We found out we need to be a little more mentally tough and we found out playing college hockey is hard.”
Manhattanville next travels north to play Bowdoin (2-0-0) in Brunswick, Maine at 1 p.m on Sunday for a game Kirnan said will be huge.
“We’re really excited about going to play Bowdoin,” Jessica Temesy added. “I think we’re playing really well right now, it is a great time to challenge ourselves and show them what we have.”
