SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (2/16/08) – Junior Sam Hunt (Calgary, Alta.) scored two goals, including her 100th career point to lead the Colgate University women’s hockey team to a 4-1 win over Union College on Saturday, Feb. 16 at Messa Rink.

 

The win seals Colgate an ECAC Hockey playoff bid, leaving just two spots remaining. This is the seventh straight season that the Raiders have reached the playoffs in their seventh year in the conference.

 

Hunt tallied her 100th point in style with an unassisted goal. Hunt won her own face off deep in the zone and picked up the puck near the net and flipped it over the back of netminder Lundy Day to light the lamp at 15:07 of the first period giving Colgate a 2-0 lead. She is just the third player in Colgate’s Division I history to make her way into the Century Club.

 

Senior defender Mallory Johnston (Chatham, Ont.) scored her second goal of the season, a power-play goal, with help from sophomore Evan Minnick (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) and freshman Hannah Milan (Great Barrington, Mass.) at 12:03 of the opening frame. Milan had the puck near the extended red line and sent the puck up the ice to Minnick near the circle. Minnick saw Johnston open at the point and sent her the puck. Johnston rifled a slap shot that made its way through traffic and directly into the back of the net.

 

Union cut the lead back to one with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at the seven-minute mark of the second session. A Dutchwoman had the puck on the left side and centered it to Marissa Gentile at the point. Gentile rifled it from the point and it skirted into the back of the net.

 

Colgate responded with a power-play goal of its own five minutes later when Hunt cocked her stick and released a shot from the top of the right face-off circle after picking up a pass from junior Kiira Dosdall (Fairfield, Ont.) from the left side. The goal marked Hunt’s 54th career goal, the most goals scored by a Division I player in Colgate history, tying former teammate Allison Paiano (’06).

 

Freshman Jessi Waters (Menlo Park, Calif.) extended the Raiders lead to 4-1 with just over three minutes to play in the second period. She dumped the puck into the zone where sophomore Beth Rotenberg (Toronto, Ont.) found it and fed the puck back to Waters who went five-hole on Day.

 

Day finished the night with 27 saves, while freshman Lisa Plenderleith (Ajax, Ont.) turned away nine shots for Colgate, as the Raiders outshot the Dutchwomen 31-10.

 

Colgate, now 12-13-5 overall and 9-8-4 in league play, hosts Harvard and Dartmouth on next weekend, Feb. 22-23, during Senior Weekend.