HAMILTON – Jared Cockrell (Readfield, Maine) scored a pair of goals within 3:18 of each other in the second period Saturday night for his second career two-goal game as the No. 19 Colgate men’s ice hockey team defeated the St. Lawrence Saints at Class of 1965 Arena.
The Raiders wrapped up the home slate for the 2017 calendar year with a record of 6-1-2 in nine games as they returned to the win column Saturday night.
Adam Dauda (Kitchener, Ontario) tallied his second goal as many nights for the Raiders in the victory while Bobby McMann (Wainwright, Alberta) added an assist for his third point of the weekend.
Goaltender Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) was solid between the pipes for the Raiders as he made 26 saves on 27 shots to lower his goals against average to 1.46 on the season.
Offensively, the Raiders peppered the Saints’ defense and goaltender Arthur Brey with 43 shots, including 31 over the final two periods as Colgate dominated much of the play.
All of the action happened during an exciting second period in Hamilton with all four goals coming during the middle stanza.
Cockrell opened up the scoring just 1:30 into the second period with his first of the game to take a 1-0 lead. Mike Panowyk (W32061hitby, Ontario) won a battle in the right corner and backhanded the puck to Josh McKechney (Calgary, Alberta) who was all alone on the end boards after a St. Lawrence defender fell. McKechney hit Cockrell standing in the slot with a pass. Brey saved Cockrell’s initial one-timer but he backhanded home the rebound for the goal.
Cockrell doubled the Raiders lead just 3:18 later with just over 15 minutes to go in the period with his second of the game. McKechney attempted a wraparound shot that was saved by Brey. A St. Lawrence defender attempted to clear the puck out of the zone but Cockrell cut down the clear attempt, controlled the puck and fired it through traffic past Brey’s blocker for the goal.
St. Lawrence managed to pull back within a goal with 7:51 to go in the second period with a power-play goal from Jacob Pritchard for his second of the season. Brey caught Colgate’s clear next to his goal and dropped it for Ben Finkelstein. After circling the goal, Finkelstein his Pritchard with a home run pass before he beat Point for the Saints’ only goal.
Dauda regained the two-goal lead for the Raiders with 44.9 seconds left in the third period on his fourth goal of the season and second in as many nights. McMann took the puck out of a battle in the right corner and circled into the slot where Brey saved his shot. Dauda chased down the rebound in the left corner and dumped the puck off for McMann. The sophomore skated into the slot and fired a backhander that was saved by Brey but Dauda was right there to bury the rebound.
The Raiders had a dominant third period with a 14-7 advantage in shots and withstood a 2:53 barrage from the Saints after Brey was pulled for the extra skater. Point made two saves on shots from the points and the Raiders blocked a trio of shots to maintain the 3-1 win.
BOTTOM LINE
No. 19 Colgate 3, St. Lawrence 1
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders returned to the win column and improved to 7-3-4 (4-1-1 ECAC Hockey) with the victory while the Saints dropped to 1-12-1 (0-5-1 ECAC Hockey) as their winless streak hit six games.
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Colgate’s 4-1-1 start to ECAC Hockey play is its best since starting the 2009-10 league slate with the same record
-Cockrell is the fifth different player this season to have a two-goal game as he did it individually for the second time in his career
-Cockrell is tied with McMann for the most goals on the team (6) and has points in three of his last four games
-Dauda scored his fourth goal of the season and second in as many nights.
-McMann finished with an assist to give him three points on the weekend and is riding a three-game point streak
-McKechney picked up his team-freshman leading seventh assist and point of the season on Cockrell’s first goal of the game
-Panowyk added his second assist of the season for his seventh point of the season
-Five different Raiders have at least seven points this season
-Point lowered his GAA to 1.46 and raised his save percentage to .952 following his 26-save performance Saturday night.
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Colgate dominated in shots on goal with a 43-27 advantage, their second most shots in a game this season
-St. Lawrence had the edge in special teams, going 1 for 2 on the power play while Colgate went 0 for 2
-The Raiders dominated faceoffs with a 45-27 advantage led by Dauda’s game-high 16 faceoff wins and McKechney was second on the team with 11
GATE GRAB BAG32062
-Head coach Don Vaughan recorded the 397th win of his career Friday night against his alma mater, St. Lawrence. Next Friday, Vaughan will be behind the bench for his 900th game for the Raiders
-Vaughan (St. Lawrence ’84) and St. Lawrence head coach Mark Morris (Colgate ’81) each coached against their respective alma maters on Saturday
-Attendance at Class of 1965 Arena Saturday night was 1,561
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
“It was a good bounce back game, we had a better effort after the first period. St. Lawrence came after us hard in the first, which we kind of anticipated. They’re a team that’s a little bit down with a lot of injuries but man they work tonight. I give a lot of credit to Mark and his staff to keep them going when they’re so snake-bitten right now.”
“I was proud of our guys, we stuck with our game and we were heavier on pucks than we were last night. Cockrell had a couple great ones and Dauda’s line was particularly strong offensively. They possess the puck really well down in the offensive boards. Colton also came up when we needed him so it was a really good team effort tonight in a tough game.”
“Jared sees the ice extremely well. He’s got explosive acceleration, which is deceiving, and that’s why you see him separate so well from the defenders. He’s also got great hands; he’s pretty crafty with the puck and can put himself in pretty good scoring positions. The part of his game that goes overlooked his he plays with a lot of grit, he’s got a little bit of a mean streak to him which I think elevates his game. He’s becoming complete as a player and is going to be a big part of our program moving forward.”
“This is a pretty good group that we have in the locker room in terms of self-awareness. They knew they didn’t play well in the first and we asked them to respond and they did. There is not a lot of screaming and yelling in our locker room anymore. For a young team, they know when they play well and they know when they don’t. They answered the bell and pressed hard in the last two periods, which gave us a great big win in league play. It’s a good feeling.”
UP NEXT
No. 19 Colgate men’s ice hockey hits the road for a pair of games at No. 15/14 Western Michigan, the first-place team in the NCHC, on Friday and Saturday in Kalamazoo with puck drop slated for 7 p.m. each night
