BOX SCORE Photo Gallery
HAMILTON, N.Y. (2/18/11) – Assistant captain
Francois Brisebois had two goals, while
Jeremy Price tallied three points as the Colgate men's hockey team downed 16th-ranked Dartmouth, 5-3, on Friday night.
Colgate (6-23-2, 3-14-2 ECAC) got the two goals from Brisebois and Price had a goal and an assist.
Kurtis Bartliff chipped in with a goal and an assist for two points.
Chris Wagner netted his fifth of the season and his classmate
Eric Mihalik played exceptional in net with 33 saves to earn his third win in his last four starts.
Dartmouth (15-8-3, 11-6-2 ECAC) saw Dustin Walsh tally a goal and an assist with Matt Lindblad adding two helpers. Adam Estoclet and Connor Goggin had the other two goals for the visitors. James Mello posted 28 saves in net and took only his fifth loss of the year.
Colgate struck first with Brisebois scoring his 11th of the season on the power play on a nice deflection off a Dartmouth skate and into the top of the net. Bartliff and Price were given assists on the play. Price then made it 2-0 after a rush where he made it all the way to the bottom of the right circle and fired a pass that hit a Dartmouth defender and for the second time in the game the Big Green put the puck in its own net.
The Raiders then took a commanding 3-0 lead with a conventional goal coming from Bartliff on the power play. Price fired a shot on net that Mello saved, but the rebound came right to Bartliff, who was waiting at the near post and jammed it home for his sixth of the season, coming at the 5:30 mark of the second frame. Dartmouth got one back with 4:05 left in the second on Walsh's lone goal of the game. He put a shot on net that Mihalik pushed aside and after Lindblad mishit the puck on the rebound, Walsh was there to slide it over the line to make it 3-1 at the end of two.
The Big Green got to within one to open the third period with a power play goal from Goggin with 12:43 left in the game. Lindblad once again was in on the action and passed the puck to Goggin, who collected the puck and as Mihalik came out to challenge he went top-shelf on the left corner to cut the lead to 3-2.
With 8:13 remaining, Brisesbois scored his second of the night and the gamewinner on a nice tip in off of a
Thomas Larkin pass from the point. The goal gave Colgate a cushion that they would need five minutes later. The reason it was a huge goal for the Raiders was that Estoclet scored his 10th of the season with an assist to Mike Keenan. Estoclet put a shot on net and Mihalik was screened by Doug Jones and didn't see the rolling puck as it went across the line.
Colgate sealed the deal three minutes later with an empty net goal with 15 seconds left.
Brian Day won the face off and after a Dartmouth player tried to get the puck to the blueline, he swooped in to get it and slide a pass to Wagner. The rookie then shoveled a backhander into the empty net to close the scoring at 5-3.
Both teams had over 30 shots with Dartmouth holding a 36-33 advantage and each team scored on the power play. The Raiders went 2-for-4, while the Big Green netted one goal in six opportunities.
Colgate will be back at Starr Rink tomorrow night at 7 p.m. as the Raiders host Harvard on Senior Night.
NOTES: Brisebois had a great night for the Raiders as he scored two goals for the second time this season … he leads the team with a career-high 27 points … he has scored points in 10 of his last 12 games and has 13 points during the stretch … Bartliff extended his point streak to four games and has three multi-point games during the streak and seven points … Price tied a career-high for points with three … Colgate had two power play goals for the first time since Jan. 9 at Princeton … Mihalik had 30 or more saves for the third time this season … in his last four games he has a 2.73 goals against average with a 3-1 record and a .906 save percentage with 106 saves on 117 shots … in the three wins he has a 1.97 GAA and a .927 save percentage ... with Harvard's 4-3 win at Cornell, the Raiders will be traveling in the first round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs.