Colgate Beats St. L & Clarkson

RFH 2010, Colgate Hockey

Sun, Dec 04, 2011

The Colgate men's hockey team had a huge weekend, beating a pair of longtime Upstate rivals:

Saturday night the Raiders beat St. Lawrence 6-2;
Friday Knight, it took some late game heroics, but Colgate beat Clarkson 4-2.

Colgate has now won five in a row and has a record of 11-4-1 overall and 6-2-0 in the ECAC.

The Raiders will play their final game before the Christmas holiday Saturday night against Merrimack. That game will feature the annual toy drive for the Interfaith Council of Hamilton. Fans are encouraged to bring unwrapped toys to a triple-header with men's and women's basketball and men's hockey. For each unwrapped toy given, fans will receive one free general admission ticket to their choice of event.

Linemates Chris Wagner and Austin Smith each tallied four points to send the No. 14/15 Colgate win over St. Lawrence Saturday.

The Raiders got two goals and two assists from Wagner to set a new career-high, while Smith scored his fifth shorthanded goal of the season and added three helpers. Austin Mayer had a career day with two goals and Jeremy Price added a goal an assist for two points. Nick Prockow also had two points with a couple of assists.

Alex Evin was solid in net with 28 saves to earn his fourth win of the year and his third-straight.

The Saints (5-9-0, 4-4-0 ECAC) got two goals from Jacob Dewiske and assists from Chris Martin, Greg Carey and Justin Baker. Matt Weninger got the start and gave up all six goals to take the loss. He made 18 saves in the game. He was relieved by Robby Moss in the third period, and Moss pushed aside nine shots in his nine-plus minutes of action.

Colgate came out on fire in the first and Mayer got things started with his fifth of the year coming 3:52 into the game. Prockow and Matt Firman cycled the puck behind the net, then Firman took a chance on a wrap around and the puck came to Mayer at the far post and he buried it home for the 1-0 lead. The Raiders then scored on their first power play opportunity of the night to make it 2-0. Smith passed the puck down to Wagner at the endline. He then found Price at the top of the slot for his second of the year.

Wagner then gave Colgate a 3-0 lead with just over four minutes remaining in the opening period. The goal came two seconds after a power play had expired. Wagner was once again on the endline and was trying to slip a pass through the crease to an open Robbie Bourdon. Fortunately for the Raiders the puck deflected off a Saint defender and into the net.

St. Lawrence was able to cut into the lead with a power play goal from Drewiske, coming 1:18 into the second frame. The goal came during a scrum in front of the net and Drewiske was able to find some open space to beat Evin. Martin was given an assist on the play.

Colgate went back up by two with its nation's leading sixth shorthanded goal of the season. Smith and Wagner were able to find some open ice and it turned into a 2-on-1 break. Smith got a return pass from Wagner at the far post after Weninger had committed to a possible shot from Wagner. Smith touched the puck into the net to push the lead back up to three goals at 4-1. The Saints made it a two-goal game again with their second power play goal of the night. The score came at 6:25 left in the second period. Dewiske scored his second goal of the night on a rebound. Carey took a shot from the point on a 5-on-3 chance and Evin kicked it away, but Dewiske was there for the clean up.

Mayer netted his second of the night to start the third period on the right foot as he gave Colgate a 5-2 lead 3:50 into the final period. Prockow stole the puck on a breakout try by St. Lawrence in the Colgate zone. He then found Mayer on a cross-ice pass and he didn't miss the net. Wagner closed out the scoring with his second of the night coming with 9:19 left in the game. Smith and Wagner hooked up for the third time to make it 6-2 and Spiro Goulakos was also given an assist on the play for his third of the weekend.

Each team earned six power play chances and the Saints were able to score on two of their opportunities, while the Raiders scored only once. There were 63 shots on goal with Colgate holding a 33-30 advantage at the final buzzer.