PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Freshman defenseman Trevor Cosgrove (Exeter, New Hampshire) scored the game-winning goal early in the third period Friday night as the No. 19 Colgate men’s ice hockey team defeated the Brown Bears, 2-1, at Meehan Auditorium.
With the victory, head coach Don Vaughan became the 24th coach in Division I NCAA Ice Hockey history to record his 400th career victory. Vaughan is also the fourth ECAC Hockey coach in the league’s history to reach the 400-win milestone.
Freshman Josh McKechney (Calgary, Alberta) scored the first goal of his career and tallied his second-career two-point game in the victory as he also assisted Cosgrove’s game-winner.
Goaltender Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) continued his impressive sophomore campaign with 37 more saves in the victory over Brown. Point has now recorded 37 or more saves five times this season.
McKechney buried his first career goal 2:10 into the first period just 15 seconds after the Raiders killed off a penalty. Sharf created a turnover in the neutral zone and worked the puck to McKechney who rifled home the puck high, glove side past Brown goaltender Luke Kania.
Brown tied the game with 14:03 to go in the third period as Nolan Aibel finished a power-play goal right after Colgate had killed off the first part of a five-on-three power play but the Raiders answered right back.
Just 22 seconds after Aibel’s goal for Brown, Cosgrove regained the Raiders lead at 2-1. Jared Cockrell (Readfield, Maine) worked the puck up the left boards for Cosgrove, who made a move to create space at the left point and fired the puck through traffic past Kania’s glove.
The Raiders held off a late third period push by the Bears as Point made career-high 23 of his 37 saves in the final stanza.
BOTTOM LINE
No. 19 Colgate 2, Brown 1
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders won their second straight game to improve to 10-7-4 (6-2-1 ECAC Hockey) while the Bears are now winless in their last six games to fall to 5-9-3 (4-7-0 ECAC Hockey)
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Don Vaughan became the 24th coach in NCAA Division I history to win his 400th career game and fourth in ECAC Hockey.
-Back in 2011, Vaughan also won the 300th game of his career at Meehan Auditorium
-McKechney tallied his first career goal in the second period and added an assist for his second career-point game
-McKechney is the second Colgate freshman to record 10 points this season
-Cosgrove scored his first career game-winning goal and second goal of the season
-Point led the way with 37 saves on 38 shots, including a single-period career-high 23 saves in the third period to backstop the win
-Sharf tallied a point for the second straight game with his fourth assist of the season on McKechney’s goal
-Cockrell now has 11 points this season after recording his fourth assist of the season
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Brown outshot Colgate, 38-33, despite the Raiders 24-14 advantage through the first two periods
-The Bears went 1 for 3 on the power play while the Raiders were 0 for 2
-Faceoffs were even at 31 wins apiece as Sharf led the Raiders with 10 faceoff wins
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
“In the heat of the moment, I wasn’t thinking about it. I can assure you that. Mike [Harder] actually told me at the end of the game, ‘It’s a pretty big deal.’ I said, ‘Yeah it’s a tough win.’ He said, ‘No, 400.’
“Moments like this gives you time to pause. For me, I think about all of the great players I’ve been fortunate enough to coach, the coaches that I’ve worked with at Colgate, the great people that have come through the programs and the students that have been managers. That’s what it does for me. It just allows me to reflect back on 25 years of great opportunities. Colgate has been great to me as well as the Hamilton community, so I think of those things and get a bit nostalgic.
“I was on the losing end of Jack Parker’s 400th win in my first year. I remember going down after the game to congratulate him, he looked at me and said, ‘You know, you’ll get there one day too, kid.’ That was the furthest thing from my mind, I never thought I’d be in this position but here it is.
“We had a great win tonight. It’s a tough win on the road; we had to hang on at the end because Brown came hard. A couple penalties in the third didn’t help but I’m just happy for the guys that they stuck with it and we got a great road win.”
Josh McKechney
“It was awesome, it’s a great feeling. It was a great play by Sharf coming off the bench he gave me the puck. It was a bit of a lucky bounce but I’m glad it went in.
“It’s a great a feeling, obviously it wasn’t the prettiest ending that we wanted but we got the win. Huge congrats to Vaughaner on getting his 400th win, I think that’s awesome and I’m just glad to be a part of it.”
Trevor Cosgrove
“It was just a great team shift, great response. We got the puck in the zone deep and I just threw it on net. There was a great screen in front and it just worked out. I wouldn’t really call myself a goal scorer but I try.
“I thought the whole team was going from the drop of the puck. We battled through the tough part of the game and we stuck with it. It was a good team win and we’ll carry the momentum into tomorrow.”
UP NEXT
No. 19 Colgate continues its road trip on Saturday as it travels to New Haven, Connecticut, to take on the Yale Bulldogs at Ingalls Rink with puck drop set 7 p.m.
