Colgate Travels to Harvard/Dartmouth

Jason Fredricks is expected to move into a tie for sixth all-time on the career games played charts at Colgate this weekend.

HAMILTON, N.Y. (2/10/09) – The Colgate men's hockey team will return to action Friday and Saturday evenings as it travels to take on a pair of ECAC Hockey foes in Harvard (5-14-4/5-7-4) and Dartmouth (12-8-3/9-5-2). Game times are set for 7 p.m. both evenings.

The Raiders, 8-15-5 overall and 3-10-3 in league action, head into this weekend's action in 11th place in conference standings, two points behind Rensselaer for 10th. The Crimson stands in ninth overall in ECAC Hockey standings with 14 points, while Dartmouth resides in fourth with 20.

Colgate is coming off an interesting weekend in which it split overtime decisions versus 10th-ranked Princeton and Quinnipiac. The Raiders battled back from a 2-0 deficit Friday evening only to fall to the Tigers 3-2 on a goal with 42 seconds left in overtime. The following night, Peter Bogdanich (Burnaby, B.C.) tallied his second career overtime goal against the Bobcats, this time 55 seconds into the extra period, as Colgate prevailed 3-2. The senior wound up with two goals in the win for his second multi-goal game of his career.

With the ties, Colgate established a school record for a single season breaking the former mark of 10 set in 2002-03 and 2007-08. The Raiders' dozen overtime appearances leads the nation and is only four away from tying the all-time national mark of 16 set last year by Minnesota. There is only one other school with double figured overtime totals in the nation and it is Clarkson with 10. Colgate sports a 3-4-5 record in overtime games this season.

The Raiders' offense has nine players with 10 or more points on the year, but it centers around three of the top goal scorers in ECAC Hockey in David McIntyre (Pefferlaw, Ont.), Brian Day (Danvers, Mass.), and Austin Smith (Dallas, Texas).

McIntyre (15-19-34), who posted four points last weekend in two games en route to being named the league's player of the week, is tied for first in the league in goals and is tied for 12th nationally in points per game (1.21 ppg). The junior is also tied for 18th in the country in goals per game (0.54) and is tied for seventh with two shorthanded scores on the year.

Smith (11-13-24) is one of the nation's top rookie scorers. The freshman is tied for eighth in the country among freshman point producers and is also tied for eighth in ECAC Hockey in goals and points. Smith is tied with McIntyre for seventh nationally with two shorthanded goals.

Day (13-4-17) ranks fourth in the league in goals scored, 22nd in the county in goals per game (0.52).

In net, Charles Long (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) has received the majority of work between the pipes. The junior is 6-8-4 in his 20 appearances with a 2.67 goals against average. However, Bryan Bessette (Melrose, N.Y.) is coming off a great collegiate starting debut versus Quinnipiac. The freshman posted a career-high 33 saves and tallied his first collegiate victory in the 3-2 victory over Quinnipiac. For his efforts, Bessette was named the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week.

The meeting with Harvard will be the 68th all-time with the Crimson holding a 43-18-6 advantage. However, in the last 10 games between the two, Colgate has held its own with a 4-4-2 mark versus Harvard, including a 2-2 overtime tie at Starr Rink on November 22 when the Crimson was ranked 18th nationally. In that meeting, Smith and Jason Williams (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) staked Colgate to a 2-0 lead in the first period, but Harvard ended up forcing overtime with a goal at 10:12 of the third. It was the second consecutive 2-2 tie between the Raiders and Harvard at Starr. Rink. Colgate won the last meeting at the Bright Hockey Center with a 2-1 decision November 11, 2007.

The game at Thompson Arena in Hanover will mark the 81st meeting with Dartmouth holding a slight 39-38-4 overall mark. The Big Green took the lead in the series with a 1-0 victory over Colgate, November 21 at Starr Rink. Long made 22 saves in the loss for the Raiders. Dartmouth, which is 7-2-1 against Colgate in its last 10 meetings, is 18-16-2 in games played in Hanover. The Raiders are 2-1-1 in their last four.

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