HAMILTON – Colgate freshman goaltender Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) made 41 saves in his first career start Friday night as the Colgate men’s ice hockey team played to a 4-4 overtime tie with the Connecticut Huskies at Class of 1965 Arena.
Point’s 41 saves are the most by a Colgate goaltender making his first career start since at least the 1999-2000 season. Since the 1999-2000 season, Charles Long had the previous high for saves by a Colgate goaltender with 37 vs. Harvard on November 11, 2006.
Point wasn’t the only Raider to have a solid game as fellow freshman Bobby McMann (Wainwright, Alberta) netted his first career goal on the power play. Junior Evan Peterson (Lakeville, Minnesota) picked up his first career multiple-goal game of his career and second career shorthanded goal in the tie for the Raiders. Senior Derek Freeman (Newburyport, Massachusetts) scored the game-tying goal with 9:05 left in regulation for his second goal of the season.
Peterson’s two-goal effort was the first for the Raiders since Tylor Spink netted both goals in Colgate’s 2-0 win over Rensselaer on Feb. 26.
Freshman Jacob Panetta (Belleville, Ontario) tallied his first career assist on Freeman’s game-tying goal while Adam Dauda (Kitchener, Ontario) and Emilio Audi (Montreal, Quebec) each chipped in two assists to tie for the team lead in points.
Freeman’s game-tying goal with 9:05 left in regulation to make it 4-4. Jacob Panetta fired a shot from the left point that was initially saved by Nichols and Audi’s rebound chance was also saved. After Audi’s shot, the rebound trickled under Nichols’ pads where Freeman jumped on the puck to jam it into the net.
The Raiders had a last second shot go just off the post in regulation before hanging on in overtime for the tie despite UConn’s 5-1 shot advantage in the extra period.
McMann’s first career goal came on the power play to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead just 1:24 into the game. With the man advantage, Jake Kulevich (Marblehead, Massachusetts) tapped a short pass to Audi in the left faceoff circle where he quickly passed it to Dauda in the slot. Dauda ripped a wrister through traffic that McMann redirected past Connecticut goaltender Rob Nichols.
The Huskies evened up the score 4:30 after the Raiders’ first goal to tie the game, 1-1. Benjamin Freeman skated the puck up the right side with speed where he fired a shot on Point that was turned away by the Raiders’ netminder. Derek Pratt was sitting on the back door and put home the puck.
Connecticut took a 2-1 lead midway through the first period on David Drake’s first goal of the season. After a Point save in front, the puck as jammed out of the crease and to a wide open Drake at the right point where he fired the puck into the wide open net.
Peterson got his scoring started with 5:57 left in the first period on his first goal of the season to tie the game, 2-2. Dauda collected a rebound that caromed all the way to the left boards and created an open lane to pass to Peterson in the slot. Peterson slid the puck across the ice through Nichols’ five-hole to tie the game.
Three minutes later, Peterson scored his second goal of the game with this one coming while the Raiders were shorthanded. Peterson stole the puck in the neutral zone and skated across the blue line where he rifled a shot past Nichols.
After a scoreless second period, the Huskies scored two goals in just over five minutes to take a 4-3 lead with 12:17 left in the third period. Connecticut’s first goal in the span came from Brian Morgan as he redirected a centering feed from Max Kalter to tie the game before Tage Thompson followed up a David Drake shot that was saved by Point for his fourth goal of the season.
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 4, Connecticut 4 (Overtime)
WON-LOST RECORDS
The Raiders improve to 0-1-2 with their second tie of the season while the Huskies move to 2-0-1.
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Colton Point recorded 41 saves in his first career start, the most saves by a Colgate freshman goaltender since at least the 1999-2000 season.
-Point made double-digit saves in every period of regulation plus five more in overtime, including 16 in the second period which were the most since Charlie Finn made 18 second period saves against Brown on Dec. 29, 2015
-Evan Peterson tallied his first career two-goal game and second career shorthanded goal
-Bobby McMann picked up his first career goal on the power play
-Jacob Panetta recorded his first career point with an assist
-Adam Dauda tallied his third career two-point game
-Emilio Audi recorded his first career two-assist game and second career two-point game
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Connecticut held the advantage in shots 45-27
-Colgate was a perfect 8 for 8 on the penalty kill and 1 for 6 on the power play
-The Huskies ended up winning the faceoff battle, 37-31, despite Colgate’s Tyler Penner winning a game-high 12 faceoffs
-Connecticut outshot Colgate 12-10 on the power play
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
“[Colton Point] was really, really good tonight. Your goalie has to be your best penalty killer and Colton was our best penalty killer tonight. The number of times we were shorthanded, they were 0 for 8 on the power play and a big part of that was the way he performed – he made a huge save at the end.”
For more from Vaughan, click here.
UP NEXT
Colgate hits the road for the first time in 2016-17 with its third straight weekend against a Hockey East opponent when they face Merrimack on Friday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Lawler Rink in North Andover, Massachusetts.
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