Box Score

ASTON, Pa. – Matt Ward of the Neumann College men's ice hockey team scored a hat trick to lead the Knights over Lebanon Valley College, 9-3, Saturday night in ECAC West action.

Jonathan Cristini added two goals. Charlie Paterson notched one goal and three assists. Mike Hedden netted a goal and two assists. Kyle Casey added two assists.

Ward opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal at the 2:57 mark. Mike Hedden scored his first goal off assists from Paterson and Jesse Cole.

The Knights scored four goals in the second period to put the game out of reach. Matt Valois netted a goal at the 5:27 mark. Matt Ward scored an unassisted shorthanded goal at 8:02. Lebanon Valley netted a power play goal to make the score 4-1. Cristini scored his first goal at 14:05 and Paterson scored at 16:38 to make the score 6-1 after one.

LVC scored the first goal of the third period, again on the power play. Ward sealed his hat trick with a power play goal at the 4:31 mark. Joe Dolan scored a power play goal at 7:06. The Dutchmen netted their third goal at the 16:37 mark, once again on the power play. Cristini capped the scoring with a goal with 23 seconds left in the game.

Ross MacKinnon started the game for Neumann and made seven saves in net in two periods. Jordan Erickson played the third period and made three saves. Rich Drazin made 33 saves in net for LVC.

Neumann improves to 8-4-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the ECAC West. Lebanon Valley is now 0-11 and 0-7 in the conference.

Before the game tonight, Neumann retired two former Knights jerseys: #2 Mike Gooch and #19 Neil Trimm. Gooch is currently playing for the Laredo Bucks and Trimm is playing for the New Mexico Scorpions.

The Knights will be off until after the first when they will travel to Norwich University for a two-game tournament. Neumann will face Norwich in the first game on January 2 at 3 p.m.