ROCHESTER, NY – Senior Madison Nichols scored her 11th goal of the season with 27 seconds left in the third period to lift the Nazareth College Women's Hockey team to a thrilling 3-2 victory over Manhattanville in a United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) game Friday night at the Bill Gray's Iceplex.

The win also clinched a playoff spot for the Golden Flyers (17-1-0, 13-0-0), ranked No.7 in the latest United States College Hockey Online (USCHO) poll.

Nazareth fell behind early as Manhattanville (10-6-1, 10-3-0) scored on its first shot of the game after an intercepted clearing pass 1:20 into the first period.

The Golden Flyers dominated play for the remainder of the period with a 12-2 shots advantage and tied the score with a power play goal midway through the period.

Junior Makenna Wiljanen took a pass from senior Stephanie Kubis and fired a shot into the top corner of the net with 9:10 left in the opening period.

In the third period, Nazareth netted another power play goal after the Valiants were whistled for a five-minute major penalty at the end of the second stanza. Sophomore Emma Hayes stole a pass and skated in alone to score the go-ahead goal just 1:07 into the third.

Five minutes later, Manhattanville tied the score again with an extra attacker goal after a Nazareth interference call.

It was the final power play attempt for either team despite the hard hitting period.

With time winding down, Nazareth continued relentless pressure and Nichols picked up a loose puck after a shot by senior Hailey Redders and rifled a low shot past the Valiants goalie for the 3-2 lead with only 27 seconds left to play.

Manhattanville tried to pull the goalie for the extra attacker in the closing seconds but the Golden Flyers continued the pressure to hold on for the victory.

Nazareth held a 43-10 advantage in shots and senior Adrianna Brehm recorded her eighth win of the season.