ECAC Hockey

HAMILTON – After a pair of tough 2-1 losses last weekend, the Colgate men's hockey team was on the winning end of a one-goal game as the Raiders defeated Brown by a 2-1 score on Friday night at Starr Rink.

Colgate (12-9-2, 4-6-1 ECAC) got goals from Darcy Murphy and Tylor Spink with Spink's coming on the power play. The story of the night, however, was Spencer Finney and the Raider penalty kill. Colgate held Brown scoreless on seven power play chances, including a five-minute major penalty in the third period. Finney was a big reason why as the rookie made 32 stops for the second-straight game.

Head coach Don Vaughan praised the effort of his penalty kill and thought it was a major part of the victory tonight.

“Our penalty kill was huge tonight and unfortunately we put ourselves in those situations,” Vaughan said. “After the second period we had a long conversation about staying out of the box. We made life way too difficult for us tonight, but we had a gritty effort from our goalie on out.”

The Bears (6-9-4, 2-6-4 ECAC) saw Matt Harlow tally his third of the season with seven minutes left in the game with assists to Mark Naclerio and Jeff Ryan. Anthony Borelli was solid in net with 29 saves, but failed to get the win.

The Raiders got on the board first with less than two minutes remaining in the period on its second power play chance of the frame. It was the top power play unit that came through again with Tylor Spink scoring his eighth of the season. Colgate won the face off and Tyson Spink got a hold of the puck and shoveled a pass to Kyle Baun for a one-timer. Borelli made the stop, but Tylor Spink was there for the rebound to put the Raiders up 1-0.

Murphy extended the lead to 2-0 with his eighth of the season coming with 4:48 left in the second period. Jeremy Price fed the puck over to Nathan Sinz and he put on a shot on net that Borelli kicked aside, but Murphy was there to collect the loose puck. He stretched his stick out and slipped the puck between the pads of Borelli as the netminder was going down into his butterfly.

Colgate was back on its heels for parts of the third period, but was able to fight through a five-minute major and another penalty late in the game. Brown was able to cut it to one at 2-1 with seven minutes left in the game with Harlow sliding the puck across the line with Finney scrambling in front of the net. However, Colgate never trailed in the game and came away with a 2-1 win, which Vaughan was happy to see after last weekend.

“It feels really good to be on the other side of a 2-1 score,” Vaughan mentioned. “Even though we had to face some adversity in the third period, it shows we can win these types of games. We have done it before, like the 1-0 win against Harvard earlier this season and the 1-1 tie at Merrimack. I was pleased with our effort and energy tonight and our goaltender and defense did a great job.”

Brown outshot the Raiders, 33-31, but couldn't solve Finney at all. Colgate scored a power play goal for the ninth-straight game and went 1-for-3 with the extra man.

Colgate will be back on the ice at Starr Rink at 7 p.m. tomorrow night as the Raiders host No. 7/8 Yale.

NOTES: Colgate has now scored a power play goal in nine-straight games … the Spinks have now scored in nine of the last 10 games … Murphy scored his eight of the season after hitting two posts last weekend at RPI … Sinz has three points in his last five games … Price has scored a point in four-straight games and nine of his last 12 contests … Colgate played its sixth one-goal game this and are 3-3-0 … Finney moves to 7-5-1 on the year and has made 30-plus saves in five games and four of the last six games.