Team Notes: Raiders Open Season at Mutual of Omaha Stampede

HAMILTON, N.Y. – The Colgate men’s hockey team will start the 2011-12 season on the road at the Mutual of Omaha Stampede with a matchup against Robert Morris on Friday night.

The year begins with a 5:37 p.m. (EST) face off against the Colonials, followed by a Saturday game against either the host No. 14 Nebraska-Omaha or Mercyhurst at 5:07 p.m. or 8:07 p.m. (EST). The Mavericks and Lakers play the second game on Friday night. All necessary links, including live audio and game notes can be found at the Men’s Hockey Game Central page.

THIS WEEK: RAIDERS OPEN SEASON AT MUTUAL OF OMAHA STAMPEDE
Colgate begins its 81st season in college hockey with a visit to Nebraska for the Mutual of Omaha Stampede. The Raiders will be opening the season against Robert Morris on Oct. 7 against Robert Morris, while Nebraska-Omaha takes on Mercyhurst in the second contest. Colgate will then face the winner or loser of that game in the second game of the tournament, depending on the result from the contest against the Colonials. The Raiders will be at the Stampede for the second time in their history and for the first time since the 2002-03 season.

LAST SEASON: COLGATE MAKES ECAC HOCKEY FINAL FOUR
The Raiders are coming off a tough season that saw the early season troubles disappear in the 2011 ECAC Hockey playoffs. Colgate entered the tournament with a 4-15-3 record in conference, but became the first-ever 12th-seeded team to make it to championship weekend. The Raiders made it to the semifinals by going through two tough three-game series against RPI and Union. Each series went to three games and both were decided in overtime. Colgate won both deciding games and eliminated two NCAA Tournament teams. The run came to an end at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City with a 4-0 loss to second-seeded Yale and was followed by a loss to Dartmouth in the third-place game. Overall the team finished with an 11-28-3 record and Colgate is set for a big turn around this season.

NEXT WEEK: NATIONALLY-RANKED REDHAWKS VISIT STARR RINK
Colgate will be hosting Miami in a huge homecoming two-game set next weekend at Starr Rink. The series begins on Friday night at 7 p.m., followed by the nightcap at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Redhawks will be the first CCHA team to visit Starr Rink since Lake Superior State in 2008-09. The Raiders split those two games with the Lakers. Miami is ranked #1 in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll and #2 in the USCHO.com Poll. Dating back to 1998, Colgate has never hosted or played a top-ranked team in the country. The Raiders played #2 Michigan back in the early 2000s for the highest ranked ever to play Colgate.

COLGATE ANNOUNCES TRI-CAPTAINS
The Raiders recently announced this year’s captains and they will be all on the blueline as seniors Kevin McNamara and Corbin McPherson and junior Thomas Larkin will be wearing the “C” on the sweater. McNamara was an assistant captain on last year’s squad, while McPherson and Larkin will be captains for the first time. The Raiders have three captains for the first time since 2004-05. Darryl McKinnon, Adam Mitchell and Dave Thomas were the captains then and led the team to Colgate’s last appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2005. The team earned an at-large bid and lost 6-5 to Colorado College in the Midwest Regional.

COLGATE BY THE NUMBERS
2005 - Last time Colgate had tri-captains
  294 - Career wins for Raider head coach Don Vaughan coming into 2011-12.
    21 - Returning players for 2010-11.
    15 - One-goal games last year (4-11).
    12 - Active coaches that have reached 300 wins.
    10 - Colgate picked to finish 10th in both ECAC Hockey Preseason Polls.
    10 - Games Colgate plays against current teams in the USCHO.com National Poll
      7 - Meetings with Robert Morris since 2007-08.
      5 - Newcomers on this year‘s squad.
      1 - Returning players that have reached 100 points in their career.

RAIDERS PICKED 10TH IN BOTH ECAC HOCKEY PRESEASON POLLS
Colgate earned 152 points in the media poll for the 10th spot, as Yale was picked as the top team for the third-straight year. The Bulldogs, who finished second in the regular-season last year, received 23 first-place votes and earned a record 432 points. Union, which celebrated 20 years at the Division I level by winning its first-ever Cleary Cup regular-season title, was picked to finish second. The Dutchmen earned 11 first-place votes and 397 points. Two other teams received first-place votes. Cornell got three first-place votes and finished third with 356 points. Dartmouth received one first-place vote and finished fourth with 308 points. Rounding out the rest of the poll order (5-12) are Rensselaer, Quinnipiac, Princeton, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, Colgate, Brown and Harvard. In the coaches’ poll, Yale received nine of 12 first-place votes to end up first with 117 total points. Union was second with 107 points and two first-place votes. Cornell was picked third with 97 points, while Rensselaer and Dartmouth flip-flopped from the media poll with the Engineers hopping over the Big Green to take fourth with 85 points. Colgate was voted 10th with 31 points.

McNAMARA STARTS GOALS FOR GOOD FOR CHARITY
Senior Kevin McNamara has started a new charitable platform revolving around the hockey teams in the ECAC Hockey called Goals for Good. He has been working with both men’s and women’s teams in the league to partner with a charity in close relation to their team, school and community. Contributors can donate monetary gifts concurrent with the amount of goals that a team will score over the duration of the season, over the course of a weekend series, or can be a one-time amount. Each week, Goals for Good will post standings on its web site, which will show the rank of each team in the amount their fans have given to the team’s charity. For more information, visit goalsforgood.org, or “Like” Goals for Good on Facebook at facebook.com/goals4good.

WELCOMING FIVE NEWCOMERS TO THIS YEAR’S SQUAD
Head coach Don Vaughan and the Colgate men’s hockey program will be welcoming five new members to the squad.  Defenseman Brendan Corcoran (Milton, Mass./Bay State Breaker (EJHL)), defenseman Spiro Goulakos (Montreal, Que./St-Jerome Panthers (QJAAAHL)), forward Daniel Gentzler (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Surrey Eagles (BCHL)), forward John Lidgett (Calgary, Alta./Camrose Kodiaks (AJHL)) and forward Joe Wilson (North Syracuse, N.Y./Kingston Voyageurs (OJHL)) will all join the Raiders for the 2010-2011 season.

RAIDER DRAFT PICKS
The Raiders have five players on this year’s squad that have been taken in the NHL Draft. Senior Corbin McPherson was taken in the third round in 2007 by the New Jersey Devils, while Austin Smith was a fifth round pick in that same draft by his hometown Dallas Stars. Junior Thomas Larkin was selected in 2009 by the Blue Jackets in the fifth round. Classmate Jeremy Price was a fourth-round pick by the Vancouver Canucks in 2009. Sophomore Chris Wagner was a fifth-round selection in the 2010 draft by the Anaheim Ducks.

CHALLENGE CUP WINNERS IN ITALY & SWITZERLAND
Prior to the academic year, the Raiders went overseas to Italy for an educational and athletic adventure in Italy and Switzerland. Colgate beat a Swiss pro team in the first game and then defeated the Italian U-26 National Team twice to win the cup. The team also visited Italian sites of Milan, Rome and lake side villas of Como and Lugano. Kevin McNamara, Nathan Sinz and Jeremy Price, gave the fans an insight into the trip with the team’s Italy Blog, which can be found on the team’s web page at gocolgateraiders.com.

COACH VAUGHAN INCHING CLOSER TO #300
Head coach Don Vaughan is six wins away from his 300th win. He will become the 12th or 13th active head coach to reach the milestone. Only Bob Gaudet at Dartmouth is closer to 300 than Vaughan as he has 299 career wins.  Cornell’s Mike Shafer and St. Lawrence’s Joe Marsh are the only active ECAC Hockey coaches that have won 300 games. Two of the four coaches at this weekend’s tournament have earned their 300th win. Mavericks’ head coach Dean Blais has 303 victories and Mercyhurst’s Rick Gotkin has 414 wins.

SCOUTING ROBERT MORRIS
The Colonials began their eighth season as a Division I hockey program after an 18-12-5 record a season ago, which was a major turn around from three-straight years of 10 wins. They posted a 13-9-5 mark in their first season in Atlantic Hockey and lost to Mercyhurst in the first round of the conference tournament. Prior to last season, they played in College Hockey America, which decided to close up shop on the men’s side of the conference.

RMU must replace its top two scorers from 2010-11. Nathan Longpre and Denny Urban led the team with 42 and 40 points, respectively. Longpre was 16th in the nation in points per game at 1.27 and Urban, a defenseman, was 10th in country in assists with 37. They leave RMU as two of the three skaters to reach 100 points in their careers. The good thing about the roster for the Colonials this year is that it contains experience with 10 seniors. Captain Trevor Lewis returns to lead Robert Morris after a 16-point season ago. Adam Brace is the highest point-getter coming back after 28 points in 2010-11 on 12 goals and 16 assists. Ron Cramer is also back after 21 points on nine goals and 12 assists.

In goal, the Colonials have plenty of depth with the tandem of senior Brooks Ostergard and junior Eric Levine. Ostergard will be the starter after a 14-9-2 record a season ago with a 2.73 goals against average. He started 24 games and had a save percentage of .915. Levine played in 13 games last year and had a 4-3-3 record. He finished with a 2.40 GAA and a .928 save percentage.

SERIES HISTORY
These two schools have played so much in the past four years they seem to play in the same conference. The Colonials and Raiders have met seven times since the series began in 2007-08. Colgate owns a 4-2-1 advantage in the series, but Robert Morris swept the season series last year. This will be the second meeting in an a tournament as the team’s met at the Governor’s Cup in 2008.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS
Nebraska-Omaha is coming off a 21-win season and a visit to the NCAA Tournament, where the Mavs lost to Michigan in the West Regional. The Mavericks didn’t make it out of the first round of the WCHA playoffs after two disappointing losses to Bemidji State after finishing third in the conference regular-season.

They have to replace their top three scorers (Joey Martin, Matt Ambroz, Rich Perslow) from a year ago, which accounted for 102 points of the 348 scored by the team. Alex Hudson returns as the highest scorer with 31 points on 13 goals and 18 assists. Terry Broadhurst is back from a 30-point season with 11 goals and 19 helpers. The next three top scorers are sophomores this year and will be counted on. The team was picked to finish fourth in the WCHA this season.

Junior John Faulkner is no question the starter for the Mavericks after starting all 39 games last year and posting a 20-15-2 record. He played over 2100 minutes between the pipes and had a 2.56 GAA and a save percentage of .908. He posted six shutouts in 2010-11 and allowed 94 goals on 1025 shots faced.

SERIES HISTORY
The Raiders and Mavericks could be playing for the sixth time with Nebraska-Omaha holding a 3-0-2 advantage in the series. The series began in 2001-02 at Starr Rink with a pair of games. The last time Colgate made the trip to the Omaha Stampede, the two teams played each other to a 5-5 tie.

SCOUTING THE LAKERS
Mercyhurst played to a 15-18-4 record last season and a 12-13-2 mark in Atlantic Hockey. The Lakers lost in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament. They beat Robert Morris in the first round and then dropped a best-of-three series to UConn.

The Lakers have to replace its top scorer from last season in Scott Pitt after a 41-point season with 19 goals and 22 assists. Paul Chiasson and Taylor Holstrom are back after tallying 37 and 33 points, respectively. Chiasson was second behind Pitt with 17 goals and Holstrom led the team with 24 helpers. Overall, Mercyhurst must compensate for four of its top five scorers that were lost to graduation. The Lakers were picked to finish seventh in Atlantic Hockey.

In goal, Max Strang and Jordan Tibbett step in after only playing in four games apiece last year. Strang went 2-1 last year with a 3.55 GAA, while Tibbett went winless at 0-3-1, but had better numbers with a .917 save percentage and 2.81 GAA.

SERIES HISTORY
The Raiders and Lakers could be playing for the seventh time in the history of the series and the first time since 2004-05. Colgate holds a 5-1 advantage over Mercyhurst and has won the last two games. The Lakers earned their lone win in 2001 with a 5-2 win. No current Raiders have faced Mercyhurst and they almost had a chance last season at the Ledyard Classic at Dartmouth as the Lakers were one of the four teams.