CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Charlie Finn (North Vancouver, British Columbia) recorded his sixth career game of 40 or more saves with 41 on Friday night in a 1-1 tie against nationally ranked No. 12/12 Harvard to open up ECAC Hockey play at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.
Finn stood on his head all game long, opening the game with 18 saves in the first period and turning away shot after shot. Colgate was outshot, 18-2, in the first period.
With 41 saves in the game, Finn recorded a new season-high and tied freshman Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) for the most saves by a Raider in the 2016-17 season. Finn’s big night was also his most saves since getting 40 saves on March 5 in Colgate’s 5-3 win over Dartmouth in the ECAC Hockey First Round.
Ross Craig (South Glengarry, Ontario) recorded his first career goal in the tie for the Raiders. Craig’s goal came on the power play, to give the Raiders six straight games with a power-play goal.
Jared Cockrell (Byfield, Massachusetts) recorded his second assist of the season and Evan Peterson (Lakeville, Minnesota) picked up his first.
Craig gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead with 9:48 to play in the first period with his first career goal. After Evan Peterson (Lakeville, Minnesota) had a shot blocked by a Harvard defender, the puck came back to Craig at the point. Craig worked it to Cockrell on the left wing before he passed it back to Craig at the point. Craig blasted the puck through traffic, off Harvard goaltender Merrick Madsen’s glove and it trickled over the goal line to light the lamp.
The Raiders took a 1-0 lead into the third period, not yielding a goal until Alexander Kerfoot’s equalizer with 7:08 left in the period. Freshman Adam Fox blasted a shot from the point before Kerfoot redirected the puck just below the crossbar. The goal stood after a lengthy review.
Finn stood strong after Kerfoot’s goal, making four saves in the overtime period to preserve the Raiders’ tie.
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 1, Harvard 1 (OT)
WON-LOST RECORDS
The Raiders extend their unbeaten streak to three games, improving to 1-3-4 (0-0-1 ECAC Hockey) in the league opener while Harvard moves to 2-0-1 (0-0-1 ECAC Hockey).
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Finn recorded a season-high 41 saves, tied with Point for the most saves by a Raider this season
-Finn’s 41-save night was his sixth career game with 40 or more saves.
-Finn’s 18 first period saves are his most saves in a period since also recording 18 against Brown in the Catamount Cup on Dec. 29, 2015.
-Craig netted his first career goal for the Raiders, becoming the third Raider to score their first career goal this season
-Ken Citron (Cos Cob, Connecticut) led all skaters with six blocked shots on Friday night followed by Willie Brooks (Locust, New Jersey) with four.
FACTS AND FIGURES
-The Raiders were outshot 42-15 by the Crimson, including an 18-2 edge for Harvard in the first period.
-Colgate extended its streak of games with a power-play goal to six games, going 1 for 3 on the man advantage. Harvard was 1 for 7 on the power play
-The Raiders led the way with 27 blocked shots compared to Crimson’s 11
-Harvard led the way with a 36-28 edge in faceoffs
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
“To come in here and get a point the way we did to start league play will help our team from a confidence stand point. We know we have a lot of work to do and its also a process, we’re just trying to get a little bit better every day and hitting our peak at the right time of the year.
“Juliano Pagliero spends a lot of time with our penalty kill guys. He did a great job, he’s doing a lot of coaching from the bench and the guys are buying in but your best penalty killer has to be your goalie and Charlie certainly was tonight.”
UP NEXT
Colgate wraps up its opening weekend in ECAC Hockey play at Dartmouth Saturday night with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. at Thompson Arena.
