November 5, 2011

Raiders Fall to Yale in Battle of Ranked Teams

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (11/5/11) – The 18th-ranked Colgate men’s hockey team
outshot ninth-ranked Yale 38-22, but the Raiders couldn’t find the net
as Yale came away with a 2-0 win on Saturday night in ECAC Hockey
action.

Colgate (5-3-1, 1-1-0 ECAC) got a solid performance from netminder
Eric Mihalik, who pushed aside 20 shots and all 20 were quality stops.
The Raiders had five power play opportunities and went scoreless, but
two of those chances were less than a minute.

Clinton Bourbonais and Antoine Laganiere were the goal scorers for the
Bulldogs, while Bourbonais also added an assist for a two-point night.
Jeff Malcolm made 39 save between the pipes for the Elis for his first
win over the Raiders. He made 18 stops in the first two frames. Yale
went 1-for-5 on the power play tonight.

Yale went up 1-0 with 8:03 left in the first period on its second
power play opportunity of the contest. Bourbonais put a soft shot on
net that Laganiere tipped between the pads of Mihalik to give the Elis
the first lead of the game. Nicholas Weberg was also given an assist
on the play. Colgate had a 13-11 shot advantage and despite giving up
the one goal, Mihalik stood tall in net with 10 stops, including one
at the end of the period that looked to put Yale by two goals.

The second period yielded no scoring but did have some excitement.
Colgate outshot the Bulldogs 15-4. Chris Wagner almost tied the game
on the power play as he broke past a couple of defensemen and hit the
crossbar with a wrister. Then Yale’s Kenny Agostino did the same at
the other end of the ice with less than four minutes remaining in the
frame.

In the third period, the Raiders were holding the Bulldogs scoreless
in the frame for the first 12 minutes, which included four
unbelievable saves from Mihalik on one play. Unfortunately, the effort
was trumped by a Colgate turnover in its own zone and Josh Balch
interrupted the Raiders and the puck went to Bourbonais and he buried
it for the important two-goal lead, which provided to be great
insurance as the game ended in a 2-0 win for the Bulldogs.

Colgate will be back on the road next weekend with a visit to
Dartmouth on Friday night and then a Saturday matchup at Harvard.

NOTES: Colgate gave up the first goal for the sixth time this season
and trailed after the first period for only the second time … the
Raiders gave up a power play goal for the fifth time … Colgate held
scoreless through the first 20 minutes for the second time this year,
the other coming against Army in the Cape Cod Classic … the Raiders
have not scored in seven periods and an overtime against the Bulldogs
… they were last shutout by Yale in last year’s ECAC Hockey Semifinals
in Atlantic City … Austin Smith has his nine-game point streak snapped
… Yale has gone unbeaten in the last six games against the Raiders
(4-0-2) and is inching closer in the all-time series, which is still
in favor of Colgate at 47-41-5.