Team Notes: Colgate Travels to the North Country

The following article appeared January 13 on the Colgate Web site.

After enduring several lengthy lay-offs since Thanksgiving, 2009, Colgate returns to a more normal schedule and ECAC Hockey league play as it travels to the North Country for a pair of games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson.  The Raiders, 7-8-4 overall, will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak Friday evening at Appleton Arena.  Colgate fell to Niagara 5-1 in the consolation game of the 2010 Shillelagh Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Ill. January 3.  The Raiders are 5-3-1 in league play and find themselves in fifth place in the current ECAC Hockey standings, just four points behind league leading Union.  Five points separate the top six teams in the standings.  The Raiders have four league games in hand of second placed Quinnipiac, which has 14 points in 13 ECAC games.  Colgate will be looking for its first ECAC Hockey league victory to start a new year since a 3-1 win over Harvard on January 7, 2005.  Since then, the Raiders are 0-3-1 in the first league game to start a new year.

MEET THE HEAD COACH
Don Vaughan is in his 17th year at the helm of the Colgate Raiders.  The 1984 graduate of St. Lawrence enters the campaign as the program's all-time winningest coach with a 276-261-63 mark.  On February 16, 2008, he became the all-time winningest coach with his 252nd victory as Colgate blanked Union 8-0.  On November 11, 2007, former Colgate President, Rebecca S. Chopp, announced the creation of the Donald F. Vaughan Endowed Coaching Chair for Men's Hockey.

THESE DATES IN COLGATE HISTORY
The Raiders are very consistent in games played on January 5 and 6.  Colgate has posted identical 9-5 records on these dates in particular.  This will be the first time in the history of the program the Raiders will play on these dates on consecutive days.  Starting with a 10-6 victory over Middlebury on January 15, 1943, Colgate was involved in seven consecutive games played on this date in which one team netted double figured goal totals, the last coming back in 1977 in a 10-2 loss to New Hampshire.  The Raiders are 4-1 on this date since that loss to the Wildcats.  Colgate has won five of its last seven on January 16, however dropped a 3-2 decision in overtime to Rensselaer at Houston Fieldhouse last year.

Complete article can be accessed via the Colgate Web site by clicking here.