BOX SCORE     Photo Gallery

HAMILTON, N.Y. (11/18/11) – Austin Smith tallied his second career hat trick to lead the 17th-ranked Colgate men's hockey team to a 3-1 win over Quinnipiac on Friday night at Starr Rink in league action.

Colgate (7-4-1, 3-2-0 ECAC) got the three goals from Smith and Chris Wagner assisted all three goals to tie a career-high with three helpers. Jeremy Price, Spiro Goulakos and Thomas Larkin also added assists in the win, while Alex Evin looked impressive in net with 31 stops to move to 2-1-1 on the season.

Quinnipiac (7-4-3, 1-3-2 ECAC) saw Connor Jones put home its lone goal of the game and the Bobcats have now scored just four goals in their last four games. John Dunbar and Kellen Jones were given the assists on the play. Goaltender Eric Hartznell pushed aside 23 shots, including 10 in the final frame, but took the loss.

After an entertaining end-to-end game the first 15 minutes, Quinnipiac got on the board with Connor Jones lighting the lamp with 4:10 remaining in the first. The puck came behind the net to Dunbar, who found Connor Jones infront and he put it past Evin for the 1-0 advantage. Colgate answered after killing off the first power play of the game. Smith scored his 11th goal of the season off of a faceoff in the offensive zone. Wagner won the draw back to Price, who then passed it on to Smith. The leading scorer for the Raiders then beat the Bobcat netminder to knot the game at 1-1 after the first period of play.

Colgate got the lone goal of the second period with Smith tallying his second of the night with a nice wrap around move that got the puck inside the far post. The play started as Goulakos and Wagner helped clear the defensive zone. Wagner then found Smith infront of the Colgate bench and he did the rest. Smith shielded off a defender and went around the net. Hartznell was caught up with bodies in the crease and couldn't get to the far post and Smith tucked it in for the 2-1 lead. Colgate carried that lead into the final period.

The Raiders were able to kill of two power plays in the final period and Smith put the nail in the coffin with his third of the night coming as an empty netter with 28 seconds remaining in the game. Wagner won the faceoff in the defensive zone and then Larkin tipped it over to Smith and then it was off to the races. Smith carried the puck just over the redline and flicked the puck into the net for the hat trick, putting the Raiders up for good at 3-1.

Both teams were disciplined when it came to penalties as they combined for just 14 penalty minutes on seven penalties. Each team went scoreless on the power play in the game.

Colgate will be back at Starr Rink for Don Vaughan Night at 4 p.m. against Princeton tomorrow afternoon. The first 450 fans that enter the rink will get a free Don Vaughan bobblehead and anyone that has a mustache, real or fake, will get one free general admission ticket.

NOTES: Smith was the last player to score a hat trick for Colgate and it came against Quinnipiac on March 9, 2009 in the ECAC Hockey playoffs … Evin has given up less than two goals in all four games started and is 2-1-1 … he has had two 30-save efforts this year … when leading after two periods, Colgate is a perfect 6-0-0 … when scoring three or more goals, the Raiders are 7-1-0 … Colgate did not allow a power play goal for the fifth time this year and the Raiders are 4-0-1 in those games … Wagner leads the team with 11 assists and is second in the conference … Smith has 13 goals to lead ECAC Hockey … he has scored at least one point in all but one game this season and has four multi-goal games …  random note, in127 games in the last four seasons, 64 have been one-goal or fewer games for the Raiders.