Raiders Split with Niagara

RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Colgate Hockey

Sun, Oct 30, 2011

The 16th-ranked Colgate men's hockey team had a third period lead, but Niagara tallied two unanswered goals to hand the Raiders a 2-1 loss Saturday night at Starr Rink.

Colgate's (4-2-1) Alex Evin (in photo by Bob Cornell) season-high 35 saves, including 18 in the first period. Thomas Larkin scored the lone goal for the Raiders with Austin Smith and Robbie Bourdon earning the assists.

Niagara (1-3-1) came back from a third-period deficit with Marc Zanette scoring the tying goal and Mike Benedict tallying the gamewinner with 1:09 left in the game. Colby Drost matched Evin save-for-save and finished with 42 stops to earn his first career win. He made double-digit saves in each period.

The first period featured a lot of up-and-down play with Niagara earning an 18-16 advantage in shots. The Purple Eagles were given two power play opportunities, while Colgate went scoreless on its own power play. Evin was impressive on a couple of occasions, including a great save on a shot from the slot right off a faceoff.

The second period was almost a copy of the first frame as Colgate had a 14-10 advantage in shots, but could not get the puck past Drost. Evin came up with 10 saves of his own. The Raiders had the best chance of the game up to that point as Christian Long slipped a slow pass in front of Drost that Smith collected and tried to stuff it around the Niagara netminder, but the puck hit the post.

Colgate got on the board first with Larking scoring with 11:55 remaining in the game. Bourdon handed the puck to Smith and then the senior shifted a pass over to Larkin on the far wing and he shot a rocket over the blocker of Drost for the 1-0 lead. It was Larkin's second goal in as many games and both came on the power play.

Niagara fought back to tie the game as Zanette beat a defenseman on the edge and charged Evin. The Colgate netminder made the initial stop, but Zanette swept at the puck and it barely made it through Evin's pads and across the goal line. The goal came unassisted with 4:04 left in the contest. Then the Purple Eagles earned the win as Benedict skated in on a 2-on-1 and beat Evin blocker high and just under the crossbar.

Colgate outshot Niagara 43-37 and went 1-for-5 on the man advantage. Niagara only earned two chances on the power play and could not score.

The Raiders will be on the road next weekend to open conference play at Brown and Yale. Coach Don Vaughan will get his second chance at win No. 300.