Team Notes: Raiders Travel to Rensselaer for First Round

HAMILTON, N.Y. – The Colgate men's hockey team heads to the Capital District for the first round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs to face #15/16 Rensselaer in a best-of-three series beginning on Friday night. 

All game day links for live video, live stats and live audio can be found at the Men's Hockey Game Central link at gocolgateraiders.com. All three games of the series are set for 7 p.m. at Houston Field House. 

RAIDERS ENTER ECAC HOCKEY PLAYOFFS
Colgate will be playing the ECAC Hockey playoffs as a 12th seed after a 4-15-3 conference mark for 11 points, while sporting a 7-24-3 overall record. The Raiders have played their best hockey this season in the last seven games. They were 4-2-1 in their toughest part of the schedule with wins over two ranked teams and a tie against Yale last weekend at Ingalls Rink. Francois Brisebois and Kurtis Bartliff have been offensive catalysts with eight and seven points, respectively, over the last seven. Eric Mihalikhas been huge in net with a 2.67 GAA and a .917 save percentage during the seven games.

POSTSEASON LEADERS
The Raiders have four players that have done well in playoff competition with Brian Day leading the way with eight points on two goals and six assists in 12 career playoff games. Kevin McNamara has seen action in nine games and has six points, all coming as the assist variety. Wade Poplawski has also played in nine games and has a goal and three assists in his career. Austin Smith has been the main scoring threat in the playoffs with five goals and an assist for six points in just four playoff games. The seniors have played a combined 37 postseason games. 

RECENT SUCCESS ON THE KILL
During the recent success by the Raiders, one of the main reasons they have been able to win four of their last seven games has been the penalty kill. Colgate has allowed just four goals on the power play and no team has scored more than once. Opponents are four for their last 31 on the power play for a 12.9 success rate. The Raiders held Yale, the nation's leaders in scoring to no goals in four opportunities and allowed just one to Union, who is at 31 percent on the power play. 

DRAWING RENSSELAER
If there was one team that Colgate has been fairly successful against it has been Rensselaer. The two teams played into overtime in both games this season and each team won by a score of 2-1. The Raiders have not lost to the Engineers in regulation and in a league game since 2002. Earlier this season, Rensselaer earned the win in overtime on a penalty shot and with the two overtime games, the two team have played six overtime games since 2002. Colgate has a 2-3-1 record in those six matchups after Kevin McNamara's OT gamewinner in the last meeting. The Engineers won 2-0 in regulation in 2007, but it came as a neutral site game at the Governor's Cup. The Raiders are 7-3-0 in the last 10 games against RPI.

POWER PLAY IS KEY FOR COLGATE
Recently the Raiders have really turned up their power play pressure with six goals in its last 29 chances for a 20.7 success rate, which well above its season number of 13.1 percent. They have scored two power play goals in two of the last four games, including a 2-for-4 effort against #16 Dartmouth, who is right now second in the league on the kill at 85 percent.

MIHALIK GETTING COMFORTABLE
The Rookie netminder has started 13 of the last 14 games and has a 4-7-2 record in those 13 games. Since taking over he has a 2.75 goals against average, which is below his season average of 3.00. His save percentage is around his season average at .901. Every game has been solid, except for a rough start at Harvard when he was pulled after 30 minutes of action in a 6-2 loss. He is the first rookie netminder to start 17 games since David Cann started 15 in 2000-01.

PRICE IS RIGHT
Sophomore Jeremy Price has been a consistent blueliner on the stat sheet with 16 points this season after his second three-point outing of the year against Dartmouth on Feb. 18 with a goal and two assists. He is ninth in the conference with 16 points and is averaging just under a half a point a game. All three goals have come against Ivy competition, while 13 of his 16 points have come against the Ancient Eight this year. 

COACH VAUGHAN AGAINST RENSSELAER
Under Coach Vaughan, the Raiders have played Rensselaer 48 times since 1992-93. He is 26-19-3 and 7-3-0 in the last 10 games. Four of the 10 games have gone to overtime and Colgate and Rensselaer at tied at 2-2-0 in those games as none of them have ended in ties. The last tie was a scoreless one in 2006.

SCOUTING THE RAIDERS
The Raiders played an exceptional game last Friday night in a 1-1 tie with third-ranked Yale, but lost some momentum with a 6-4 loss at Brown. However, Colgate has turned it on and looks to build on its success in the playoffs. In the last six games, Colgate is scoring above its average with three goals per game and the Raiders are allowing 2.9 a game. 

Colgate is one of four teams in ECAC Hockey that have had every skater score a point, but the Raiders are the only team with two points for every skater. Francois Briseboisis the team leader in goals and points with 13 scores and 29 points. He set a new career-high for points in a season with four points in his last four games with three goals and an assist. Four of his goals came on the power play and he has at least one point in 11 of his last 15 games. Austin Smith is second on the team with 25 points on eight goals and 17 assists. Kurtis Bartliff is tied for the team lead in assists with 17 and has seven points in his last seven games. Robbie Bourdon had a pair of helpers with one in each game last weekend and has 22 points. Jeremy Price leads all blueliners on the team with 16 points on four goals and 12 helpers. 

In net, Rookie Eric Mihalik has taken over as the primary netminder with 13 starts in the last 14 games. He has a 4-11-2 overall record with a 3.00 goals against average. He earned his first weekend sweep of his Colgate career with 60 saves in the two wins over Dartmouth and Harvard. Junior Alex Evin has started 14 games for the Raiders and has a 3-10-1 mark. He added his second career shutout on Dec. 4 against Army with 24 saves and has recorded an .891 save percentage and a goals against average of 3.22. Junior Bryan Bessette earned his second start against Dartmouth on Jan. 29, but was pulled in the second period. He is 0-3-0 and has a save percentage of .892 and a goals against average of 3.91. 

The Colgate power play had glimpses last weekend with two goals against Brown in six chances. It was the second time in the last four games the Raiders have reached two goals on the power play. Overall, they are 11th in the league at 13.1 percent (23/176). On the kill, Colgate has jumped up to 10th in the league at 79.5 percent and has seen recent success in the area and has posted an 87.1 percent success rate in the last seven games.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
Rensselaer comes into the first round on a bit of a skid as the Engineers are 1-4-1 in their last six games, which started with a 2-1 overtime loss. Two of the losses have come in overtime and the team has played 12 OT games and is 3-3-6 in those games. Prior to the Colgate overtime loss at Houston Field House, Rensselaer jumped to #8 in the national polls after posting a seven-game unbeaten streak and only lost two games in the previous 15 games. The Engineers are averaging over three goals a game and giving up 2.2 goals to its opponents. 

Chase Polacek is the team leader and also the ECAC Hockey leader in points with 44 on the season. He is tied for seventh in the nation in total points. He has 18 goals and 26 assists this season and is second in the league with nine power play tallies. Twenty-seven of his 44 points have come in conference play with 11 goals and 16 assists. He has 156 career points on 62 goals and 94 assists. Tyler Helfrich has enjoyed a successful season so far with 34 points on 13 goals and 21 assists. He recently reached 100 career points and has 102 points on 32 goals and 70 assists. Defenseman Nick Bailen is tops in ECAC Hockey among blueline skaters with 33 points on eight goals and 25 assists. The Engineers come into the weekend with 13 players with 10 or more points this season. 

In net, Allen York has started 30-of-34 games for Rensselaer and is 17-8-4 overall and 10-7-1 in conference play. He is in the top-three in both goaltending categories. He has a 2.05 goals against average and a save percentage of .927. York started the first game against Colgate and earned a 2-1 overtime win. He made 29 saves at Starr Rink. Bryce Merriam got the start in the last meeting between these two schools and made 27 stops in the 2-1 loss to the Raiders. 

The Rensselaer power play is in the middle of the pack in ECAC Hockey at 17.9 percent. The Engineers have 33 goals in 184 chances. Polacek leads the way with nine goals with the man advantage, while Helfrich has five. On the kill, they are third in the league at 84.9 percent with 17 power play goals allowed in 179 opponent opportunities.

SERIES HISTORY
Rensselaer and Colgate will be playing for the 112th time on Friday night since 1915-16 and this series is the oldest in Raiders hockey history as it stretches 96 years. Colgate has played more games against Clarkson and Cornell, but those two series began in 1927. Colgate's first ever game was against the Engineers in 1915-16 with the Raiders winning 6-1. It was the only game of the season. The Engineers have a slight advantage at 55-53-3. Only the series with Dartmouth is closer (41-41-5). The Raiders are 7-3-0 in the last 10 games, which has featured five overtime games.