HAMILTON – Willie Brooks (Locust, New Jersey) scored the game-winning power-play goal with 3:54 remaining in the third period to propel the Colgate men’s ice hockey team to a 5-3 win over the Maine Black Bears, the Raiders’ first win of the season on Saturday night.
Brooks corralled a pass from Jacob Panetta (Belleville, Ontario) that Tim Harrison (Duxbury, Massachusetts) attempted to shoot but bounced off his stick back to Brooks. The Raiders’ defenseman wound up and blasted the puck through traffic past Maine goaltender Matt Morris for his first goal of the season.
Jake Kulevich (Marblehead, Massachusetts) secured the win for the Raiders with 29 seconds left as he drilled a no-look, 200-foot empty-net goal from behind his own end line to make it 5-3.
Overall, five different players scored goals for the Raiders in their first win of the season, led by Hunter Racine (Ottawa, Ontario) who was the only two-point scorer for the Raiders with a goal and an assist. Adam Dauda (Kitchener, Ontario) and Andrew Black (Buffalo, New York) also scored for the Raiders.
Colgate led Maine 3-1 heading into the third period before Maine battled back to tie the game within the first 5:53 of the period. Blaine Byron picked up a Colgate turnover on the forecheck and flung the puck past Colgate goaltender Charlie Finn’s (North Vancouver, British Columbia) blocker side to cut the Raiders lead to 5-1. Less than three minutes later, Chase Pearson tied the game for Maine. Ryan Smith stole the puck behind the Raiders’ goal and backhanded a strong pass to Pearson in the left faceoff circle where he gathered the puck and fired it low past Finn in one motion.
The four-goal third period between the two teams came after a scoreless second period with the Raiders leading, 3-1. Finn kept the momentum in the Raiders’ favor with a huge glove save on a Mitchell Fossier breakaway, maintaining the Raiders’ 3-1 advantage.
Racine netted his second goal of the season just 2:19 into the game to hand Colgate a 1-0 lead. He collected his own rebound off a shot and circled the net where he buried the backhand on the left side of the goal.
Colgate added a second goal 6:10 into the game, this time from Dauda to make it 2-0. Bobby McMann (Wainwright, Alberta) had his initial shot saved by Morris could not handle the rebound. John Snodgrass (Eagan, Minnesota) crashed the net and nudged the puck with a backhand to Dauda who jammed home the puck on the weak side.
After Maine cut the lead in half, Black regain the two-goal lead for Colgate with 3:34 left in the first period. Mike Panowyk (Whitby, Ontario) won a faceoff in the offensive end to Racine, who carried the puck along the boards into the left corner before heading back towards goal. Morris stuffed Racine’s close shot but the rebound skidded off his pads to Black who swiped the puck past Morris’ glove side.
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 5, Maine 3
WON-LOST RECORDS
The Raiders pick up their first win of the 2016-17 season to improve to 1-3-3 on the season while the Black Bears are winless in their last five games, falling to 3-3-2.
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Hunter Racine recorded his third career two-point game with a goal and an assist
-Dauda continues to lead the Raiders on the ice, picking up his team-leading third goal and seventh point of the season
-Dauda also has three power-play goals, tied for second in ECAC Hockey and his four power-play points are tied with McMann for third in the league
-Black picked up his first goal since Nov. 21, 2014 with first period tally
-Brooks netted his first goal of the season and second power-play goal of his career
-Snodgrass has recorded an assist in three straight games, giving him four assists to tie Dauda for the team lead
-McMann recorded an assist to give him a three-game point streak and points in four of his last five games.
-Panowyk picked up his first assist of the season
-Harrison’s assist was his second of the season
-Panetta also picked up his second assist of the season; giving him an assist in two of the three games he has dressed.
-Finn made 20 saves in the win, giving him at least 20 saves in all five games this season
FACTS AND FIGURES
-The Raiders tallied 40 shots on goal for the second straight game, outshooting Maine 42-23 for their largest shots margin since outshooting St. Lawrence 47-26 on Jan. 29.
-The Raiders netted two power-play goals, their fifth straight game with a power-play goal.
-Colgate went 2 for 9 on the power play while Maine went 0 for 4; the Raiders also outshot the Black Bears, 11-3, on the power play.
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FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
“It feels great, we did a lot of really good things tonight, and last night as well. These were two really good games for us, anytime you fire 42 shots on goal you’re doing a lot of things right. We got some great efforts up and down our lineup. Our young guys played extremely well tonight; McMann and Dauda obviously did a great job too and [Snodgrass] on that line.
“The best thing about this is there could have been some doubt creeping into our team after we gave up two to start the third but they stuck with it.”
To hear more from Vaughan, click here.
UP NEXT
Colgate hits the road to open ECAC Hockey play next weekend, opening the weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts to face the Harvard Crimson at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center at 7 p.m. The Raiders then travel up to Hanover, New Hampshire for Saturday night to face the Dartmouth Big Green at Thompson Arena at 7 pm.
