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LEWISTON, N.Y. (10/28/11) – Austin Smith scored his second goal of the night, 1:21 into overtime to give the 16th-ranked Colgate men's hockey team a wild 7-6 win over Niagara on Friday night at Dwyer Arena.

Colgate (4-1-1) got two goals from Smith and Austin Mayer, while Chris Wagner collected a career-high three assists. Smith scored his 50th career goal and also added an assist for three points. Robbie Bourdon, Christian Long and Thomas Larkin each potted goals and Eric Mihalik pushed aside 30 shots to earn the win. Head coach Don Vaughan earned his 299th career win and will go for his 300th tomorrow night at Starr Rink.

Niagara (0-3-2) saw Ryan Rashid tally two goals and the Purple Eagles had five different goal scorers in the game. Cody Campbell got the start in net, but was pulled after 28 minutes of action. He made 14 saves before being relieved by Chris Noonan, who made 12 stops.

Niagara took a quick 1-0 lead after a 2-on-1 rush by the Purple Eagles 4:34 into the opening period. Patrick Divjak put the puck past Mihalik with a slapper on a pass from Kevin Ryan. Colgate answered two minutes later with a power play goal from Larkin. Wagner won the faceoff after the penalty whistle and got a shot blocked, but Larkin chipped home the puck to tie the game just two seconds into the power play. Wagner and Smith were given assists.

The Raiders earned their first lead of the game at 2-1 with 8:20 remaining in the period with another power play goal. This time it was a sharp wrister from Mayer that came with one second left on the man advantage. Kevin McNamara and Corbin McPherson was given a helpers on the goal. Niagara fought back with Rashid scoring on a nice shot from the circle to tie the game at 2-2 with four minutes left in the opening frame.

Colgate retook the lead at 3-2, two minutes into the second period with Smith tallying his first of two on the night. The goal came on the power play with Wagner recording his second assist, Bourdon earned the secondary. Smith scored on a sharp angle shot that found its way into the net. The Purple Eagles fired back on their own power play with Sam Alfieri tying the game at 3-3 with 11:35 left in the second frame.

Bourdon gave Colgate its third advantage of the game with an unassisted goal coming 23 seconds after Niagara tied the game. It was the first 5-on-5 score for the Raiders in the game and it was Bourdon's third of the season to make it 4-3. Mayer then tallied his second power play goal of the night with 1:02 remaining in the second period with the assist to Matt Firman. 

The two-goal cushion did not last long into the third period as Scott Arnold tallied a goal 40 seconds into the period and it came on a rebound off of Mihalik's pads. Long scored an important goal to give the Raiders its second two-goal lead of the game with his first goal of the season in his first action of the year to push the advantage back up to two goals at 6-4.

Rashin got Niagara back to within one at 6-5 with a wrist shot as he was falling down with 4:12 remaining and then Isaac Kohls scored on a 2-on-2 situation off of a face-off to tie the game at 6-6. The goals came in the span of 16 seconds.

In overtime, Colgate turned the puck over and Rashid looked be skating away with an odd man rush, but fell down. The Raiders were able to collect the puck and Joe Wilson found Smith at the post and he one-timed the puck into the back of the net for the 7-6 win. The goal came 1:21 into the extra frame and was the Raiders' second overtime winner of the season.

Colgate is back at Starr Rink tomorrow night at 8 p.m. as these two teams will take to the ice once again.

NOTES: The last time Colgate had four power play goals in one game was against Canisius in 2009 … third time this season Colgate has posted two or more power play goals … Smith extends point streak to seven games, dating back to last season … he has three multi-point games this season and tonight was the 29th time in his career … he had two goals for the 10th time in his career and for the second-straight game … Wagner has tallied points in four of the last five games …  Mayer becomes the eighth player to record a multi-point game this season and it was his first multi-point and multi-goal game in a Colgate uniform … Raiders score seven goals for the first time since 2008 against Union in an 8-2 win … Vaughan can become the 14th active coach to reach 300 wins tomorrow night … Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet earned his 300th win tonight with a win over Brown and is one of four ECAC Hockey coaches to have 300 wins.