HANOVER, N.H. – Senior John Lidgett scored two goals and freshman Zac Hamilton made 22 saves for his first career shutout to lead Colgate to a 3-0 victory over Dartmouth in ECAC Hockey action Saturday at Thompson Arena.
Lidgett gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead with a power play goal midway through the first period and later closed out the scoring with an even-strength marker in the third for the second multi-goal contest of his career. Senior Joe Wilson also scored for Colgate, notching his ninth goal of the season early in the final frame to give the Raiders some breathing room before Lidgett’s second tally put the game out of reach.
Making just his third career start, Hamilton turned aside all 22 shots he faced, including a game-best nine stops in the second, for his first career victory.
Bottom Line
Colgate 3, Dartmouth 0
Won-Lost Records
– Colgate improved to 16-11-3 overall and 8-7-3 in ECAC play with the shutout victory.
– Dartmouth slipped to 12-9-4 and 9-7-2 with the loss as it saw its six-game unbeaten streak come to a close.
How It Happened
– Lidgett staked the Raiders to a 1-0 lead at the 9:19 mark of the first period. While Colgate was on the power play, junior Tylor Spink played the puck behind the net to his brother Tyson. Tyson Spink then found Lidgett in the slot, where he buried the puck under the cross bar to get the Raiders on the board.
– The score remained unchanged until the 3:22 mark of the third period. During a transition opportunity for the Raiders, Junior Darcy Murphy played a shot on goal that Dartmouth keeper Charles Grant stopped, but kicked right to Wilson, who stuffed the puck inside the left post for his ninth goal of the season. Junior Mike Borkowski picked up the secondary assist on the play.
– Lidgett closed out the scoring five minutes later with his second goal of the contest. With the faceoff in the Raiders zone, Lidgett won the draw to freshman Mike Panowyk, who played the puck back to Lidgett in the neutral zone. Lidgett carried the puck into the Dartmouth zone before placing a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle over the glove of Grant for his sixth goal of the season.
Inside The Box Score
– The Raiders held a 31-22 shot advantage in the contest. The Raiders out-shot the Big Green in all three periods (10-8, 11-9 & 10-5).
– Colgate was 1-for-4 on the power play while Dartmouth was 0-for-2. The Raiders had a five-minute power play during the second period that included 1:20 of 5-on-3 action, but were unable to capitalize during the sequence.
– Dartmouth held a 35-29 in the faceoff circle during the contest. Borkowski was 10-of-13 in the circle to lead the Raiders.
– Lidgett led Colgate with five shot attempts while Jesse Beamish notched a game-high six shots for Dartmouth.
Key Raider Info
– Lidgett turned in the second two-goal game of his career and the first since a two-goal outing against Yale on Feb. 10, 2012.
– The two-point performance was Lidgett’s second multi-point game of the season and the sixth of his career.
_ Lidgett recorded the third game-winning goal of his career and the first since the 2012-13 season.
– Borkowski picked up his third point in four games since returning from injury with an assist on Wilson’s third-period goal.
– With his first-period assist, Tylor Spink now has points in three the last four games, all assists.
– With his third period assist, Murphy moved into a four-way tie for first on the team with 12 helpers.
’gate One Timers
– Colgate improved to 29-3-1 since the start of the 2013-14 season and 12-1-0 this season when scoring three or more goals in a game.
– Raiders moved to 33-2-5 since the beginning of the 2012-13 campaign and 13-2-0 in 2014-15 when carrying a lead into the third period.
– Colgate improved to 13-4-0 this season when scoring the first goal of the game.
– The Raiders allowed one goal or less for the 11th time this season and improved to a perfect 11-0-0 when doing so.
– Colgate improved to 13-6-2 this season when holding opponents to 30 shots or less in a contest.
– The Raiders lost the faceoff battle for just the fifth time this season, but moved to 5-0-0 when doing so.
From The Source
Colgate Head Coach Don Vaughan
(On Game)
ˆIt was great to play with a lead. It was pretty evident early on we were playing well. Spiro (Goulakos) said on the bench ‘we’re back.’ What he meant by that was that we were winning all of the battles for loose pucks. We won a lot of 1-on-1 battles tonight, something that we didn’t do last night. I was really pleased with the response after a night like last night when things didn’t go our way. I was happy how we played defensively. Zac (Hamilton) made some big saves when we needed him to. There were no second and third opportunities. Just a great effort up and down our lineup.”
(On offense scoring three goals)
“You always get a little concerned when you have a five-minute major and on top of that some 5-on-3 time and you don’t convert. We had some looks during the major power play, including a hit post, but you worry that those things can sometimes come back and haunt you. But the guys stuck to it. We talk about process all the time and regardless of the fact that the power play didn’t get one on that occasion, we were still all about sticking to the game plan and playing to our structure. In the third period we were able to finish on a couple of plays. It was nice to have that three-goal cushion in the third.”
(On Zac Hamilton)
“He’s played three games for us this season and done well in all three of them. The shutout is special as it’s his first win. The guys are really happy for him, as am I. He works extremely hard. A lot of times, he’s putting the extra work in practice and he got rewarded for it tonight.”
Freshman Goaltender Zac Hamilton
(On game)
“It was a great team effort tonight. Everyone played really well. It was good to bounce back after a tough loss at Harvard last night. Personally, it was awesome to get my first win that way.”
(On defense)
“Dartmouth is really fast and they like to stretch guys, so our defense was really focused on picking up those guys in the neutral zone and taking that away from them. The guys played great in our end and really shut them down, especially in the third period.”
Up Next
– Colgate is back in action Feb. 20 when it hosts defending national champion Union in a 7 p.m. contest at Starr Rink.
– Tickets are available by calling 315-228-7600 or by visiting Bleedcolgatemaroon.com.
