HAMILTON – For a second straight season, Colgate Men’s Ice Hockey opens the regular season ranked as the Raiders claimed the No. 20 spot in the USCHO.com preseason poll released Monday.
The Raiders are one of five ECAC teams listed in the inaugural rankings for the 2015-16 season. Defending tournament champion Harvard leads the quintet as it was one of a record 10 teams to receive a first-place vote to grab eighth place. Fellow 2015 NCAA tournament participant Yale was 12th, followed by Quinnipiac (18), St. Lawrence (19) and Colgate.
Colgate returns 18 letterwinners from last season’s squad that posted a 22-12-4 overall mark, an 11-7-4 record in league play and advanced to the ECAC tournament championship game for the second consecutive season.
Tyson Spink, an All-ECAC Third-Team selection, is back to lead the Colgate attack after pacing the team in scoring for a second consecutive season with 31 points (14 G/17 A) in 2014-15. Murphy (11 G/15 A), Borkowski (6 G/14 A) and Tylor Spink (7 G/13 A) also return.
Defensively, blueliners Lough, Brett Corkey and Jake Kulevich return to anchor a defensive unit that ranked sixth in the nation in scoring defense (2.13).
Goaltender Charlie Finn is between the pipes once again after a sophomore campaign that saw him rank among the nation’s top netminders in shutouts (6/2nd), winning percentage (.657/12th), goals against average (2.03/13th) and save percentage (.924/22nd).
Colgate opens the regular season this weekend with a Saturday-Sunday series at Mercyhurst.
