PRINCETON, N.J. – Superb goaltending was on display Friday night at Hobey Baker Rink as the Colgate men’s ice hockey team skated to a scoreless tie with the Princeton Tigers in the ECAC Hockey opener for both teams.
Sophomore goaltender Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) made the second most saves in his career with 43 while Princeton’s freshman goalie Ryan Ferland made 36 saves in the tie.
For the Raiders, it was just their third scoreless tie in program history and first since Feb. 9, 2008 against the Clarkson Golden Knights at Cheel Arena.
Point was incredible between the pipes for the Raiders, recording his second career shutout and second in the past three games. He came up big time-after-time to make the hard save look easy.
Five minutes into the first period, Point stopped a two-on-one breakaway from the Tigers for one of his 14 saves in the opening stanza. The Raiders goaltender continued to make stops until another big save with just under seven minutes left in the second period when his stick was knocked away but Point remained calm and made a save.
Point made four critical saves in the third period to maintain the scoreless tie before making his biggest save of the game with 2:21 left in overtime where he lunged and made a save with his right pad to stop a Max Veronneau breakaway opportunity.
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 0, Princeton 0 (OT)
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders pick up their fourth tie of the season to move to 3-2-4 (0-0-1 ECAC Hockey) while the Tigers are 1-0-1 (0-0-1 ECAC Hockey).
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Colgate and Princeton skated to the third scoreless tie in Raiders’ history and first since Feb. 9, 2008 at Clarkson
-Point made 43 saves, the second most in a game in his career and the most in a scoreless tie for the Raiders
-The shutout was Point’s second of the season and of his career
-The Raiders have allowed just one goal over the past three games
-Point lowered his GAA to 1.09 and raised his save percentage to .964 while remaining unbeaten to open up the season (3-0-4).
FACTS AND FIGURES
-The Tigers outshot the Raiders, 43-36 Friday night
-Both teams committed just one penalty with each going 0 for 1 on the power play
-Both teams were also even in faceoffs with 29 wins apiece.
‘GATE GRAB BAG
-Neither Colgate hockey team gave up a goal on Friday with the women’s team recording a 2-0 shutout, also against Princeton. The last time that happened was Nov. 4, 2005 when the both teams shut out Brown with the women winning, 3-0, and the men winning, 5-0.
-Four of the last five games between the Raiders and the Tigers at Hobey Baker Rink have gone to overtime.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
“It was an entertaining game, clearly, there were lots of chances even though it was a 0-0 game. There were good chances at each end and both goaltenders played very well tonight. Defensively, our guys on the back-end are doing a really great job of clearing in front and Colton’s seeing [the puck] really well. It can be a little frustrating, Colton’s given up one goal in three games and has one win to show for it but if he keeps doing that and we keep playing well in front of him, the wins will come.”
“[Colton’s] doing what we expect him to do. You see goalies in the NHL making 35-40 saves per night and that’s what he’s doing for us right now. We just have to try and find him offensively and support him in that regard. It will come; it’s never easy to win and it’s particularly hard on the road against the team picked to finish fourth in the poll, they’re a good hockey club and we held our own.”
“We’ve got to get some rest, that was a tough game in a tough building. We’ve got a lot of respect for Quinnipiac, they’re very a skilled hockey team. We’ll have to manage the puck and be disciplined like we were tonight, and find a way to get some pucks in behind their goaltender.”
Goaltender Colton Point
“The guys cleared the lanes for me, I got a lot of straight-on shots. It’s always a team effort when you get a shutout and they played really well in front of me. There were a lot of shots coming across from the outside so all around it was a good team effort.”
“I’ve just been doing my thing, I know what it takes for me to be good and make sure I do all of those things. The coaches knew when they recruited me what I was capable of and I don’t see any reason to let them down. The guys have my back and I’m always there to have their back. They’ll bail me out and I’ll bail them out.”
UP NEXT
The Raiders travel up I-95 to Hamden, Connecticut, where they will face the No. 11/12 Quinnipiac Bobcats Saturday night at High Point Solutions Arena with puck drop set for 7 p.m. on ESPN3.
