Game 25: Colgate vs. Dartmouth
Date: Sat., Jan. 21, 2012
Site: Starr Rink; Hamilton, N.Y.
Score: Dartmouth 5 Colgate 4 (OT)
Records: Colgate 12-9-3 (6-5-1 ECAC), Dartmouth 8-8-2 (5-5-1 ECAC)
Colgate Game Story
Dartmouth Game Story
Box Score
Quick Analysis
College hockey is a 60-minute game and sometimes it is even more than that. Saturday night, the Raiders came up 20 minutes short of a three-point weekend. However it should be noted that the sky isn't falling, the program isn't in a downward spiral and there is still lots of hockey left to be played in 2011-2012. Was this a bad loss? Yeah, but what's done is done and now the team will move forward to Cornell.
The Good
*Colgate still continues to control its own destiny in regards to a top-four finish in the ECAC standings. With 10 games remaining, Colgate is tied for fourth place with Clarkson and still one point behind third-place Quinnipiac. The Raiders have two games at hand on the Bobcats and a head-to-head meeting left with Clarkson on Feb. 18 at Cheel Arena. For the moment, Colgate holds the head-to-head tiebreaker with Clarkson based on a 4-2 win on Dec. 3 at Starr Rink. If the team can pull things together over the final five weeks of the season, a top four finish and a first-round bye into home ice advantage in the quarterfinals can still very much be had.
*Four different goals from four different players. The Raiders had not scored three or more times since the opening game of the Ferris State series, a 4-3 loss in Big Rapids. Finally on Saturday night, Colgate’s offense erupted into a goal-scoring orgy of three strikes within a two-minute span late in the second period. Add on Kurtis Bartliff’s short-handed goal in the opening minutes of the first period and the Raiders came up with four games. A loss is a loss but it was nice to see the offense finally break through and put goals on the board – and not just the Wilson-Smith-Wagner line.
*A strong second period. The second periods during the Princeton-Quinnipiac road weekend were dismal with Colgate allowing eight goals in what amounted to two losses. That said, Friday and Saturday night’s middle frames were very strong. The ‘Gate outshot Harvard 12-6 on Friday night and then followed up with a tremendous second period on Saturday against Dartmouth. The strong, hard-work period was capped off by a three-goal surge in the final 2.5 minutes of the frame with goals coming from Joe Wilson, Matt Firman and Austin Smith.
*Penalty killing. Colgate’s penalty killers turned in a perfect 4-for-4 effort against the Dartmouth power play. That included scoring one short-handed goal, the eighth of the season for CU. Given how much the penalty kill has struggled over the last month, shutting out Dartmouth from a power play goal is a big step forward. The Raiders still need to be careful with their short-handed rushes in not getting both forwards caught up the ice and having that turn into an odd-man rush to the other end.
*Being physical, at least through two periods. The Raiders took the body and played at times a crash and bang style game. No more evident was this than on Colgate’s fourth goal. Chris Wagner’s body-check in the slot on Dartmouth’s Eric Neily kept the puck in the offensive zone and allowed Corbin McPherson to set up Austin Smith with a diagonal pass that Smith rifled past James Mello to give CU a 4-1 lead. The team seemed to be aggressive physically and everyone was throwing the body, even players that don’t normally get into the body-checking game.
*Regardless of the result and what you may think of his performance in goal, Alex Evin finally returned to the line-up for the first time since Dec. 3 when he backstopped the Raiders to a lop-sided win over Saint Lawrence at Starr Rink. The Raiders now have two healthy goaltenders for the final five weekends of the season as opposed to just one.
The Bad
*The third period saw the game take a dramatic 180-degree turn as a 4-1 Colgate advantage melted away into a 4-4 deadlock with about four and a half minutes left to play in regulation. For those that remember, this was nearly a replay of what’s referred to as “the Yale game” three years ago when the Bulldogs came back from a 4-0 deficit in the third period to win 5-4 in overtime.
*Seriously though, what in the world happened in the third period? Dartmouth wanted it more and the Raiders seemed to take their foot off of the accelerator. The Big Green hustled to pucks, made smart decisions in the offensive zone, won face-offs, played strong in the defensive end with Connor Goggin and Mike Keenan and cashed in on scoring chances. Dartmouth also smothered Colgate defensively and blocked a good number of shots, not allowing the Raiders to get the puck on James Mello who had struggled in the second. And, the Raiders had no answer for Eric Robinson, Doug Jones and Matt Lindblad who all came alive in the third.
*Overtime. Colgate’s OT record entering the weekend, 2-0-2, with wins over Miami (Ohio) and Niagara. The Raiders played overtime on both Friday and Saturday night and neither overtime session was a solid period. In two overtime games, Colgate took a combined total of zero shots on goal. Friday, CU dominated the third and then appeared somewhat sluggish in OT, allowing Harvard to come away with a point. On Saturday, Dartmouth had the momentum carrying over from the third period and the Raiders seemed sloppy and couldn’t really generate a great offensive chance, even with the puck in the attacking zone.
*Power play. The weekend began with Colgate’s high-flying power play unit around 20.0% for the season coming in against two of the worst (statistically speaking) penalty killing teams in the nation in Dartmouth and Harvard; the result? Zero power play goals and an 0-for-8 performance overall on the power play. Saturday, Colgate went 0-for-5 on the man advantage with two of the five power plays washed away due to penalties (one for a slash, one for interference). The Raiders have struggled mightily on the power play as of late with just one power play goal in their last 15 chances. In its last four ECAC league games, Colgate is 2-for-20 (10.0%) on the power play.
*Untimely penalties. Colgate took just four penalties in the game and ended up allowing only six opponent power plays on the weekend. That said, the timeliness of the penalties really hurt the Raiders. Two penalties came in the opening three minutes of a period (one in the first 30 seconds) and the two others came during a power play which then nullified a man-up chance.
*Let downs around the intermission break. Colgate led for most of the first period, 1-0, behind Kurtis Bartliff’s short-handed goal. That lead vanished with less than a minute to go in the period when Mark Goggin potted the equalizer for the Big Green. Dartmouth’s comeback rally began in the first 95 seconds of the third period with two fluky but quick goals that stunned the Raiders and turned a 4-1 game into a 4-3 game before the dust had settled on the second intermission. Bottom line, Colgate has to be stronger in this situation - just like when the Raiders were strong at the tail end of the second period.
*Face-offs for the second night in a row were nearly 2-to-1 in favor of the opposition. Dartmouth’s Tyler Sikura, a freshman, seemingly won every draw he took and Raider centermen had a hard time sweeping the puck back towards their defensemen. We said this after the Harvard game on Friday night, Colgate simply has to be better at draws. A face-off win leads to puck possession and to potentially a shot on goal. Not winning the face-off leads to a break-out, a clear or an offensive chance for the opposition.
*Over-passing and not being able to get the puck on goal. Now, as mentioned above, Dartmouth blocked its fair share of shots in the third period. That said, Colgate has fallen back into last year’s habit of looking for the perfect shot and some players want to continue to try and set the table rather than shooting the puck. Both nights on the weekend, Colgate had an odd-man rush in the third period with a chance to win the game and in each situation, no actual shot was taken. Someone ended up over-skating a pass or it was broken up. Other times, the Raiders seem too quick to the shoot the puck from the outer perimeter and it ends up going right into shin pads and skates. There’s a good balance of shooting the puck on goal and taking smart shots, the Raiders can’t seem to figure that out right now despite Friday night’s 36 shots versus Harvard.
The Turning Point
Saturday’s turning point actually comes from a combination of two factors; one was Chris Wagner’s violent open-ice body check on Dartmouth’s Eric Neily that led directly to Colgate’s fourth goal with 22 seconds left in the second period. The frame ended soon enough and then the Big Green came out firing on all cylinders in the third period. Another factor, two super quick goals in the first 95 seconds of the third period that turned the game from a three-goal laugher into a one-goal nail-biter.
This and That…
*Eleven different players scored goals in the game. No one for either Dartmouth or Colgate had a multi-goal night. Dartmouth’s Eric Robinson led the way offensively for both sides with a goal and two assists. Colgate’s Chris Wagner did have multiple assists, he pocketed two on the night to increase his season total to 21.
*The Raiders now have two 30-point scorers on the season in Austin Smith and Chris Wagner. Smith’s two-point night pushed his team-leading total to 38 points on 24 goals and 14 assists. Smith is now three points shy of his career high (41). Wagner’s aforementioned two assists increased his career-high point total to 30 (9-21-30).
*Austin Smith’s two points pushed his career total to 141 points on 67 goals and 74 assists. He is now tied for 22nd place on Colgate’s all-time scoring list with Ron Fogarty. Smith needs one point to pass Fogarty and eight points to move into 21st place in front of Shawn Lillie. If and when Smith passes Lillie, he will become the highest American-born point producer in Colgate hockey history.
*Saturday night’s game produced the best attendance of the season at Starr Rink with over 1,500 in attendance. Much like games past, the crowd wasn’t much to speak of when the puck dropped however as the game went along, the old barn filled up nicely. Hopefully all 2,200+ fans will be in their seats when the puck drops at Starr Rink next Saturday with Cornell in town.
*Twice this season, Colgate has scored lightning-fast goals in less than a one-minute span against Dartmouth. CU used two goals 39-seconds apart in the first meeting of the year at Thompson Arena as part of a three-goal third period in a 4-0 victory. Saturday, Colgate’s Matt Firman and Joe Wilson lit the lamp 18 seconds apart to boost the Raiders up to a 3-1 edge, breaking a 1-1 deadlock.
*Saturday night’s loss was Colgate’s first at home in an ECAC game since Feb. 4, 2011 against St. Lawrence. It was also Colgate’s first home overtime defeat dating back to a 2-1 losing decision versus RPI on Jan. 15, 2011.
*Despite Saturday’s defeat, the Raiders are 5-1-5 in their last 11 overtime games.
*This weekend marked the first time since October than CU has played back-to-back overtime games. The Raiders played three-straight OT tilts between Oct. 15 and Oct. 28 and went 2-0-1 in those games with wins over Niagara and Miami (Ohio) and a tie versus Army.
*The Raiders finished the regular season series with eight goals against Dartmouth in two games.
*Matt Firman and Joe Wilson scored in the same game for the second time this season. Firman and Wilson each lit the lamp in a 4-1 victory at Vermont on Nov. 25. Firman scored twice in the game and Wilson notched the eventual game-winner. Saturday, the pair struck 18 seconds apart to give Colgate a 3-1 lead.
*Alex Evin suffered his first loss in goal since a 2-1 defeat to Niagara on Oct. 29.
*Dartmouth’s five goals are the most allowed by the Raiders at Starr Rink since a 6-4 setback to Yale on Nov. 20, 2010.
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