With OT Win, Underdog Colgate in ECAC Semi-finals

RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Colgate Sports

Mon, Mar 14, 2011

The Colgate men's hockey team fought off three deficits and Wade Poplawski scored the overtime gamewinner with 9:08 left to send the Raiders to Atlantic City with a 4-3 win at top-seeded Union.

Colgate will face second-seeded Yale in the semifinals at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The Bulldogs defeated St. Lawrence tonight by a 4-0 score. The times will be announced early in the week.

The Raiders (11-25-3) became the first-ever 12th seed in the ECAC Hockey playoffs to reach the final four with an upset series win over Union. Poplawski was the hero for Colgate with three points on a goal and two assists. Francois Brisebois scored the game-tying goal in the third period and added an assist for two points, while Jeremy Price chipped in with two helpers. Rookie Eric Mihalik was once again solid in net with 34 saves, including 29 in the final two periods and overtime.

Union (26-9-4), who is ranked fourth nationally, will be waiting until next week to see if they play again as they will hope to earn an at-large NCAA berth. The Dutchmen had three different goal scorers tonight with Mat Bodie leading the charge with two assists. Kinkaid pushed aside 29 shots in the loss.

Union took a 1-0 lead with 7:58 left in the first period. Andrew Boute jammed home a rebound on a Bodie shot from the blueline. Bodie was able to collect the puck along the line and skated to the midpoint and fired a shot that hit off Mihalik's left pad and to Boute. Justin Pallos got the play started by knocking down a Colgate clearing attempt and was given an assist.

Colgate tied the game at the 17-minute mark of the second with Austin Smith scoring his 10th of the season and first of the series on the power play. Brisebois made a nice cross-ice pass to Price, who put the puck on net from the point that Kinkaid stopped. Smith was there for the put back that went between the pads of Kinkaid to tie the game.

Union answered with its own power play goal with 14:45 left in the second to retake the lead at 2-1. It was on the Dutchmen's second power play chance of the night and Jeremy Welsh got the goal. Josh Jooris and Bodie were credited with the assists on the goal.

The Raiders kept fighting and scored their second goal on the power play at the 6:59 mark with Bartliff scoring his first of the playoffs. Poplawski passed the puck along the blueline to a waiting Price. He shot a one-timer on net that Kinkaid couldn't handle and Bartliff chipped a backhander inside the post to tie the score at 2-2.

Kelly Zajac put the Dutchman back on top at 3-2 with 16:47 left in the game. Matt Hatch found himself alone in the slot and slipped a pass to Zajac, who's initial shot was snuffed out by Mihalik. However, he stuck with the rebound and scored at the far post to give Union its third advantage of the game. Hatch and Adam Presizniuk were given assists on the goal.

Colgate came back again to tie at 3-3 with 2:37 left. Poplawski tallied his second assist of the night as he shifted the puck down the boards to Brisebois. The senior simply backhanded the puck from the endline, it deflected off a Union defender and lit the lamp. Mihalik was given an assist on the play for his first collegiate point.

The teams went to overtime and Day had a great chance two minutes into the extra period as Price shot the puck towards the net and Day was alone at the far post. Unfortunately, the shot was too high for Day to handle and the score remained tied. Not too long after Day's chance, Smith almost won it on a rebound try, but Kinkaid reached across the open net and pushed it aside with his blocker on an unbelievable save.

The constant pressure paid off as Poplawski sent the Raiders bench into a frenzy with his first goal of the season at the 9:08 mark of overtime. The goal came unassisted as Poplawski collected the puck along the half boards to the right of Kinkaid. He held the puck, waiting for a couple of screeners and fired a shot that went up over the shoulder of Kinkaid and hit the upper left corner of the net.

Union had the shot advantage at 37-33. Colgate was 2-for-7 on the power play, while the Dutchmen scored once in three chances with the man advantage.