Baun’s Hat Trick Keeps Raiders Rolling
Colgate Scores a Season High 7 Goals; Tyson Spink Records 4 Points
HAMILTON – Sophomore Kyle Baun tallied his first collegiate hat trick to send the Raiders to second place in ECAC Hockey after a 7-3 defeat of St. Lawrence on Saturday.
Colgate (13-9-3, 9-3-1 ECAC) is now unbeaten in seven-straight games and is 7-1-1 against ECAC Hockey opponents in the last nine.
The Raiders were led by sophomores Baun and Tyson Spink. Baun had three goals while Tyson Spink had a career-high four points. Mike McCann, Joe Wilson and Kevin Lough each scored as well and Spiro Goulakos added a pair of helpers. Charlie Finn stopped 22 shots and earned his eighth conference win of the year in 10 games played.
The Saints (8-13-3, 2-7-3 ECAC) got three goals from three different skaters and Greg Carey recorded two assists to push his total to 30 on the season. Matt Weninger made 23 saves before being relieved in the third period for Kyle MacDonal, who stopped three shots.
The first period featured a lot of action with the two teams combining for five goals and Colgate had a 3-2 lead after 20 minutes of play.
Baun got the scoring started with his first of three on the night after nice feed in front by Brendan Corcoran. Tyson Spink fought off a defender behind the St. Lawrence net and fed the puck out to Corcoran. The defenseman had a chance to put a shot on net, but choose to drop it for Baun and he buried it for the 1-0 lead, five minutes into the opening frame.
Colgate came back six minutes later and pushed the lead up to 2-0 with Tyson Spink adding his second point of the night after serving a minor penalty. The Raiders killed off the second power play for the Saints and got a fortunate bounce as Darcy Murphy got the puck at the defensive blueline. He then spotted a streaking Tyson Spink, fresh out of the box and he beat Weninger on a breakaway.
St. Lawrence stormed back with two goals in a three-minute span to tie the game. Drew Smolcynski capitalized on a 3-on-2 after a pass from Chris Martin. Brian Ward took a hit coming into the zone, but made the play to Martin. The Saints had a 2-on-1 down low and Smolcynski put home a one-timer on a pass by Martin.
Wilson gave the Raiders the lead again with a hard-fought goal in front of the net. Jake Kulevich had the initial shot on Weninger from the left side and a scrum ended up in front. Andrew Black got on a shot net and then Wilson poked home the rebound for the 3-2 lead after 20 minutes.
The Raiders regained their two-goal advantage with their second power play goal of the night with a nice deflection in front of Weninger. It was ninth power play goal in the last five games. The puck movement was excellent once again for Colgate and Tyson Spink fired a pass from the goal line to Goulakos at the high slot. He took the shot and Baun redirected it inside the near post for the 4-2 lead with eight minutes to go in the middle frame.
The third period was all Raiders on the scoreboard with three goals. McCann got it started with his fifth of the year coming on a rebound in front. Tyson Spink put the puck on net and Weninger made the save, but McCann followed the play and picked up the garbage for the 5-2 lead with 12:28 left in the third.
Baun secured the hat trick and his 10th of the year and sixth on the power play. He was able to collect a puck off a St. Lawrence skate just above the crease. He whipped around and beat Weninger for the 6-2 lead. Goulakos and Mike Borkowski were given the assists on the goal.
After Woody Hudson got the Saints back to within three with his third of the year, Lough finished off St. Lawrence with an empty net goal from about 190 feet to end the scoring at 7-3.
Both teams were 2-for-6 on the power play and Colgate had a 33-25 advantage in shots.
The Raiders are back on the road next weekend at Brown and nationally-ranked Yale.
