HAMILTON – The Colgate men’s hockey team honored its eight seniors on Saturday, but Rensselaer spoiled the night with an overtime 3-2 win with the Engineers scoring with 10 seconds left in the extra frame.
Colgate (14-14-4, 6-11-3 ECAC) got two power play goals in the second period coming from Kyle Baun and Mike Borkowski. Tyson Spink added a pair of helpers on both goals and Borkowski had a multi-point game as he assisted on the Raiders’ first score. Eric Mihalik did his part in net with 34 saves and two of the three goals were deflections in front through traffic. He made 23 saves in the final two periods.
Rensselaer (15-12-4, 10-7-3 ECAC) was led by Matt Neal and Nick Bailen. Neal had the gamewinner in overtime and had an assist for two points, while Bailen had a two-point night with a goal and an assist. Jason Kasdorf made 25 saves in net.
After a scoreless first period, the teams made up for it with a combined four goals in the second with three of the four coming on power plays. Baun got it started with his 12th goal of the year 1:10 into the frame to make it 1-0. Baun, Borkowski and Tyson Spink connected on a nice tic-tac-toe play and Baun fired a one-timer from the slot, which Kasdorf had no shot at stopping.
Borkowski then put the Raiders up 2-0 with the second power play score of the period for Colgate midway through the frame. Tylor Spink connected on a pass to Tyson Spink to the left of Kasdorf and he shoveled a cross-ice pass through the defense to Borkowski on the opposite side. He collected the puck and fired a wrist shot that Kasdorf looked to have stop, but it got under with glove hand and trickled across the line.
The Engineers then evened it up with two-straight goals in the final eight minutes of the middle frame. The first came off the stick of Mark Miller, who tipped home a Luke Curadi shot from the points with 7:25 remaining in the frame. Rensselaer then tied the game with 1:17 left with Bailen tallying his 11th of the year on another tip-in. He camped out in front and Ryan Haggerty fired a shot that he redirected into the net to tie the game at 2-2.
The teams then played a clean third period with no goals and no penalties.
In overtime and with less than 15 seconds remaining in the game, Chris Bradley took shot from the right point that Mihalik pushed aside, but Neal was all alone at the opposite post and he put home the rebound with 10 seconds left in the extra period to give the Engineers the 3-2 win.
Each team earned three chances on the power play and the Raiders scored both of its goals with the extra man, but didn’t go on the man advantage in the third period. The Engineers scored once on their three chances and won the shot battle by a 37-27 margin.
Colgate will be back on the road next weekend for its final regular season weekend at Yale and Brown with playoff seeding on the line.
