MEN'S HOCKEY GAME CENTRAL

HAMILTON, N.Y. (11/16/11) – The 17th-ranked Colgate men's hockey team will be back at Starr Rink for the first time in two weeks as the Raiders host Quinnpiac and Princeton for its annual Silver Puck Weekend.

The game against Quinnipiac on Friday night is set for 7 p.m., while Saturday's matchup with Princeton will be played at 4 p.m. at Starr Rink. Fans can view all the necessary game day links by logging onto the Men's Hockey Game Central page.

BOBBLEHEAD GIVEAWAY!
In celebration Don Vaughan's 300th win, Colgate Athletics will be giving away over 500 Don Vaughan bobbleheads. On Friday night, 100 luck fans will be selected randomly to receive their souvenir. The following day, the first 450 fans to enter the rink will receive their free bobblehead courtesy of Subway on Route 12B in Hamilton.  Also, Saturday night is Don Vaughan Night and fans with a mustache (both real or fake) get a free general admission ticket to the game.

FOOD DRIVE THIS WEEKEND
Also this weekend, the Colgate men's hockey team will be hosting its annual food drive for the Hamilton Food Cupboard. Fans are asked to bring can goods or non-perishable items to Starr Rink and for their generosity, Colgate Athletics will hand out one free general admission ticket for the game for every five items collected.

GOALS FOR GOOD UPDATED STANDINGS
TOP-5
Colgate           $381
Brown              $73
Rensselaer      $45
Quinnipiac       $42
Yale                  $14

THIS WEEK: SILVER PUCK WEEKEND VS. QUINNIPIAC & PRINCETON
The Raiders will host Quinnipiac on Friday night and Princeton on Saturday for Colgate's annual Silver Puck Weekend. The Raiders will return to Starr Rink for the first time in two weeks and this season they are 1-2-0 at home. Next weekend will start a run of six of the next seven games at home, all the way until the new year. The Bobcats, who have been ranked this season, have gotten off to a hot start at 7-4-2, but has started 1-2-1 in conference play and is in eighth place with four points. Princeton has started the season 2-4-1 and has a 2-3-0 mark in conference play. The Tigers have earned a win over Harvard and beat Clarkson, 3-0, last weekend at home.

LAST WEEK: RAIDERS SHUTOUT BIG GREEN, FALL TO CRIMSON
Colgate went back out on the road for the second-straight conference weekend and came out with a 1-1-0 record with another trip to New England. The weekend started off great with a dominating performance at nationally-ranked Dartmouth that resulted in a 4-0 shutout win, which was the first for Eric Mihalik as he made 30 saves in the win. The Raiders got goals from four different skaters with Matt Firman leading the way with a goal and an assist. The next night at Harvard, the Raiders hit a road block and after being called for a five-minute major with a 2-1 lead, the Crimson rallied with two goals during its power play and added a third period score to hand the Raiders a 4-2 loss on Saturday night.

NEXT WEEK: COLGATE TRAVELS TO VERMONT FOR OLD ECAC MATCHUP
For the first time in three weeks, the Raiders will be playing a non-conference game as Colgate hits the road to play former ECAC-foe Vermont on Nov. 25. The Raiders will be facing the Catamounts for the first time since 2008-09 and the first time at Gutterson Field House since the two schools were both ECACHL members in 2004-05. Vermont has had a rough go of it this season with a 1-5-1 record to start the season with its lone win coming at Minnesota in the second game of the year. The Catamounts are on a five-game winless streak and face #14 Boston University and Northeastern on the road this weekend. The game is set for 7 p.m. the day after Thanksgiving.

COLGATE BY THE NUMBERS
   301 - Career wins for Raiders head coach Don Vaughan.
   147 - Votes received by Colgate in the USCHO.com National Poll.
     52 - Years since the first Silver Puck, which was given to J. Howard Starr in 1960
     19 - Players on the Raiders with at least one point.
     13 - Active coaches that have reached 300 wins.
     12 - Teams with points after two ECAC Hockey weekends.
     10 - Colgate picked to finish 10th in both ECAC Hockey Preseason Polls.
     10 - Games left against current nationally-ranked teams.
       9 - Raiders that have multi-point games this year.
       9 - Power play goals in the last nine games.
       5 - One-goal games this season.
       5 - Straight weeks in USCHO.com Poll.
       4 - Power play goals against Niagara on Oct. 28, most in a single game since 2009.
       4 - Largest winning margin this season (W, 4-0)
       5 - Wins when leading after two periods.
       3 - Overtime games this season (2-0-1).
       3 - Shorthanded goals this season (all by A. Smith).
       3 - Wins over nationally-ranked teams.
       1 - Shutouts this season.

RAIDERS RANKED
Colgate is ranked for the fifth-consecutive week, coming in at 17th in the nation, which is one ahead of last week's ranking. Colgate sits at 6-4-1 on the season with three wins over ranked opponents. The Raiders are one of four teams in ECAC Hockey to be in the top-20 as Yale is the highest at No. 9, followed by Union at No. 12/13 and Cornell at No. 18. Colgate got the same amount of points as last week with 147 points in the poll after the weekend split. Colgate is not playing a ranked team this weekend, but Quinnipiac has been ranked at No. 19 this season.

COACH VAUGHAN HITS #300 MILESTONE
Head coach Don Vaughan became the 39th coach in the history of Division I Men's Hockey to earn 300 wins after a 5-3 win at Brown. He became the 13th active coach to reach No. 300. He will be the fourth active ECAC Hockey head coach to join the club as his former boss Joe Marsh at SLU, Cornell's Mike Shafer and Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet. It will be the second time this year that Coach Vaughan faces another 300-win coach as Gaudet and Vaughan compete against each other on Friday night. Vaughan coached against Dean Blais of Nebraska-Omaha, who has over 300 wins, and won 4-3.

CONFERENCE PARITY
ECAC Hockey showed it has great parity from top to bottom after the first two weekends of league play. Every team has at least two points. There are four teams tied at the top with six points, followed by Colgate and four others with four points. Clarkson and Harvard sit in 10th with three points and Rensselaer has a league-low two points. Union, Rensselaer, Princeton and Quinnipiac have played one more game than the others in the league.

SMITH OFF TO CAREER START
Austin Smith is off to his best point-scoring start in his career with 10 goals and five helpers for 15 points in 11 games. He has scored a point in 10-of-11 games this season and has four multi-point games and three multi-goal games. Three of his goals have come on the power play. He has two gamewinners, a game-tying and three shorthanded goals. He was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Nov. 1 for his four points over the weekend against Niagara.

HOLDING A LEAD
The Raiders have gone into the third period with a lead in five games this season and have won all five games. In four of the five games, the lead has only been one-goal. The lone game that Colgate had more than a one-goal lead was against Niagara in a 7-6 overtime win on Oct. 28. That lead is important for the Raiders as they are 1-4-1 when tied or losing after two, with the lone win coming against Miami when the game was tied 1-1 after 40 minutes. They have come back once this season when down going into the third period as they force a 2-2 tie with two goals in the third period against Army. Scoring three or more goals has been huge for Colgate as the Raiders are 6-1-0 when that happens.

MIHALIK EARNS FIRST SHUTOUT
Eric Mihalik recorded his first collegiate shutout with 30 saves against Dartmouth last Friday. He earned the goose egg in his 32nd start of his career. He is off to a good start with a 5-3-0 record and a 3.00 goals against average in his first season as the primary netminder. He has given up 24 goals this season with 10 of those coming on the power play.

A MATCHUP OF SCORING LEADERS
Jeremy Langlois of Quinnipiac and Smith will be taking the ice on Friday night as two of the top three scoring leaders in the conference. Langlois has 10 goals and six helpers for 16 points, while Smith has 15 points. Connor Jones of the Bobcats is also in the mix with three goals and 11 assists.

SMITH JOINS 50-50 CLUB
Smith became the 32nd player in Colgate hockey history to reach the 50-50 club with 50 goals and 50 assists in a career. He reached the milestone with the overtime gamewinner against Niagara on Oct. 28 in the 7-6 win. He currently has 116 career points with 52 goals and 64 helpers. He passed current NHLer Jesse Winchester '08 for 32nd on the all-time scoring list after his two shorties at Brown.

SCOUTING THE BOBCATS
Quinnipiac has played the most games this season than any other conference team as the Bobcats are 7-4-2 in 13 games this year, but have a 1-2-2 conference mark. They are currently on a four-game winless streak after starting the season with a 7-2-0 record. Last week, Quinnipiac went 0-1-1 with a tie against Clarkson and a 1-0 loss to St. Lawrence. The Bobcats are averaging 3.6 goals a game, but scored just one goal in both games last weekend.

Langlois leads the team with 16 points on 10 goals and six assists. Six of his 10 goals have come on the power play, which leads the conference. Jones is tops on the team in assists with 11 on the year and he is second with 14 points. Kellen Jones and rookie Matthew Peca have 12 points apiece with Jones scoring five goals and adding seven assists. Peca has three helpers and nine assists. Scott Zurevinski returned for his final year and has 10 points on two goals and eight assists.

In goal, Eric Hartznell and Dan Clarke have split time so far this season with Hartznell getting seven starts and Clarke with six. Both goalies have a 2.06 goals against average with Clarke posting a 5-2-0 record and Hartznell earning a 2-2-2 mark. Clarke has the lone shutout for the Bobcats, which came against Canisius in a 4-0 win.

SERIES HISTORY
Quinnipiac and Colgate have had some battles in the past and the Bobcats have a slim 9-8-2 advantage in the series. They have played each other 19 times since the first meeting in 2005-06, including five times in 2008-09 that featured four overtime games. Three of the four came in the first round of the conference tournament as Quinnipiac won game one and three to move on in the tournament. The Raiders won the second game of the series and that was the last time Colgate earned a win in the series as the Bobcats have won the last six meetings.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Princeton has gotten off to a 2-4-1 start with new head coach Bob Prier, who was at St. Lawrence as an assistant prior to going to the Tigers. Princeton is 2-3-0 in conference play with wins over Harvard and Clarkson. The win over the Golden Knights came as a 3-0 shutout last weekend. The Tigers are averaging 2.5 goals per game and are giving up three goals a game.
 
Princeton is led by defenseman Michael Sdao with four goals and one assist for five points. He is tied with Jack Berger and Eric Carlson for the team lead in power play goals with two apiece. Derrick Pallis, another defenseman, is tied with reigning rookie of the year Andrew Calof and Sdao with five points, but they both have five assists and no scores. Rob Kleebaum is one of three others with four points and he has three goals and an assist.

In goal, Sean Bonar returns as the top netminder and has started five games and has a 2-2-1 record with one shutout. He has a 2.39 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. He has 123 saves on 135 shots. Mike Condon has made two starts and has lost both, giving up seven goals on 55 shots and has a 3.56 goals against average.

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 97th meeting between these two schools, dating back to the first contest back in 1935-36. Colgate is holding onto a slim lead at 47-43-6 after getting swept by the Tigers last season with both games decided by one-goal. The Raiders have had some success at home against Princeton with a 25-13-2 record in Hamilton.