HAMILTON – The Colgate men’s ice hockey team earned a hard fought victory Friday night at Class of 1965 Arena as the Raiders took down the No. 5/5 Harvard Crimson, 2-1, for their second straight win over a ranked opponent and to extend their unbeaten streak to six games.
Last week, the Raiders defeated then-No. 11/12 Quinnipiac before following that up with an upset of the No. 5/5 Crimson in front of their home crowd.
Colgate remains unbeaten at home with the victory, improving to 4-0-2 in six games at the Class of 1965 Arena.
Goaltender Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) shined once again for the Raiders as he made 30 saves to shut down the Harvard31979 offensive attack to extend his unbeaten streak to nine games.
Jared Cockrell (Readfield, Maine) found the back of the net with his fourth goal of the season while Paul Meyer (Edina, Minnesota) buried his second career goal for the game-winner in the game.
Cockrell gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead 8:12 into the first period right after Mike Panowyk’s (Whitby, Ontario) interference penalty had expired. Panowyk exited the box and immediately stole the puck from a Harvard skater right next to the box. He skated into the high slot and rifled the puck on goal where Cockrell tipped it five-hole past Harvard goaltender Merrick Madsen.
The Raiders and Crimson battled over nearly the next 20 minutes until Meyer capitalized on a Harvard turnover to double the Raiders lead. An errant Harvard pass on an attempted breakout went right to Meyer who rocketed the puck past Madsen’s glove side.
Harvard’s Ryan Donato brought the Crimson within a goal on late in the second period as he scored a power-play goal with 53.7 seconds left in the frame.
Point stood on his head in the third period as he made 12 of his 30 saves in the final period to maintain the Raiders 2-1 lead for the upset victory.
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 2, No. 5/5 Harvard 1
WIN/LOSS RECORDS31980
The Raiders extended their unbeaten streak to six games to improve to 5-2-4 (2-0-1 ECAC Hockey) while the Crimson fall to 2-2-0 (2-2-0 ECAC Hockey).
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Colgate’s six-game unbeaten streak is it’s longest since recording an eight-game unbeaten streak at the end of the 2014-15 season
-Point has allowed just three goals in his last five games, lowering his GAA to 1.07 and maintained his .965 save percentage
-Point also has 30 saves in six of his nine games played this season, remaining unbeaten at 5-0-4
-Cockrell scored his fourth goal of the season and 10th of his career to open the scoring for the Raiders
-Meyer found the back of the net for the second time in his career with an unassisted goal
-Panowyk recorded his first assist of the season on Cockrell’s goal
-The Raiders win over No. 5/5 Harvard was its first against a top-five team since beating Quinnipiac in the ECAC Hockey Semifinals on March 21, 2014
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Harvard outshot Colgate, 31-20, thanks to a 12-3 edge in the third period
-The Crimson also scored the lone power-play goal, going 1 for 4 on the man advantage while the Raiders were 0 for 2
-Harvard also had the edge in faceoffs at 35-26.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
“We had really good energy early, our structure was really good tonight. We did a lot of things well early, obviously in the third period we knew they were going to press and come hard. We got into a defensive posture but you’re playing a really skilled team and that was going to happen.”
“When we need him to, Colton stepped up with some big31981 saves. They’re a very good hockey club and we found a way to beat the No. 5 team in the country but we’ve got to reset and get ready for another good game tomorrow.”
“Paul’s a locker room favorite, his game is getting better every single day and he’s worked extremely hard. He’s finding a little bit of an offensive upside that we weren’t even aware that he had. That was a great goal, Snods got the goalies’ eyes on the way by which he’s really good at doing and he lost the puck for that split second. That was a big goal for us.”
“He’s playing really well all around, he and Kenny are going up against the opposition’s top line and they’re shutting them down. Now that he’s contributing offensively, it’s a bonus.”
“We’re so young so the guys are starting to believe in it. The big thing is we keep checking in on them, making sure that they’re buying into the process and what we’re doing. We’re getting lots of positive feedback from that so they’re responding to that. Right now, we feel like we can play with anyone and that’s a good feeling to have. We know there are no days off so tomorrow’s going to be another battle and we’ll have to get ready for that.”
UP NEXT
Colgate men’s ice hockey welcomes the Dartmouth Big Green (2-3-0, 2-2-0 ECAC Hockey) to the Class of 1965 Arena Saturday afternoon for the second day of Silver Puck Weekend. Puck drop with the Big Green is set for 4 p.m.
