Lebanon Valley 4, Elmira (RV) 1

LVC Starters
Skerlick (LW), Thompson (C), Armbruster (RW), Hall (D), Straub (D), Eisenhower (G)

Elmira Starters
Powell (LW), Cuce (C), Ford (RW), O'Neill (D), Blais (D), Sabourin (G)

How It Happened
HERSHEY, Pa. – Lebanon Valley locked up the No. 3 seed in next week's UCHC Championship Tournament with a convincing 4-1 victory over Elmira, who received votes in the most recent d3hockey.com poll, on Saturday night in conference action. The Dutchmen ended the regular season with a 12-9-2 overall mark and a 10-4-2 record in UCHC action. The Soaring Eagles, who will be the fifth seed in the Tournament, ended the regular season at 13-9-3, 8-5-3 UCHC.

LVC was the first to strike this evening when Bryan Hovanec continued his impressive season with a goal at 10:03 of the first from TJ Sneath and Jared Karas. Later in the first, at 17:31 and with the Dutchmen on the man-advantage, Karas netted his second goal of the season, from Cole Hepler and Brett Johnson, to give LVC a 2-0 advantage after one period of play.

20 seconds into the middle period, Elmira's Nick Ford netted a power-play goal to cut into the Dutchmen's lead at 2-1. For the remainder of the period, neither team could find the back of the net and LVC went into the third with a narrow 2-1 advantage.

In the third period, it was the Dutchmen who struck 20 seconds in, as Mike Straub's blast from the point off an assist from Johnson put LVC back up by two at 3-1. Then, with just under two minutes remaining, Hovanec scored an unassisted goal on a breakaway to put the game away for good.

The Dutchmen defense came up with huge plays throughout the game, including at 16:45 of the second when the Soaring Eagles' Connor Powell created a breakaway chance, but Joel Eisenhower stoned him to keep LVC up by one at the time at 2-1. Then, at 12:15 of the third, Elmira created a 2-on-1 chance, but Brad Nolan made a good play and cut off the Soaring Eagles' cross-ice pass to keep the Dutchmen ahead.

Inside the Numbers
 - Hovanec's two goals now put him at 14 on the season, tied for the team lead with Johnson.
 - Johnson picked up a pair of assists and now has 30 points this season.
 - Karas, Sneath, Travis Hall, Straub, and Hovanec were all +2 tonight.
 - Eisenhower made 26 saves to pick up his fourth win of the season.
 - The Dutchmen led 40-32 in total faceoff wins.
 - Hepler was 10-for-15 from inside the faceoff circle and Travis Acker was 6-for-7.

Playoffs Set for Next Week
LVC has clinched the No. 3 seed in next week's UCHC Championship Tournament. Utica (No. 1) and Stevenson (No. 2) received byes and will play in the semifinal round next Saturday. The other quarterfinal matchup is No. 5 Elmira at No. 4 Manhattanville.

Who's Next?
The Dutchmen square off with Neumann in Hershey on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinal round. LVC went 1-0-1 against the Knights in the regular season, including a 7-6 win over Neumann back on Jan. 20 in Hershey. Check out GoDutchmen.com early next week for a playoffs preview.

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