BOX SCORE

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (2/26/11) – The Colgate men's hockey team concluded the regular season with a 6-4 loss to Brown on Saturday night at Meehan Auditorium and will play Rensselaer in the opening round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs.

Colgate (7-24-3, 4-15-3 ECAC) got goals from four different skaters and was led by senior Francois Brisebois, who had a goal and an assist for two points. Jeremy Price, Mark Nasca and Kevin McNamara also scored for the Raiders. Rookie netminder Eric Mihalik pushed aside 38 shots and had a total of 77 saves in the two games this weekend.

Brown (10-14-5, 8-12-2 ECAC) saw Harry Zolnierczyk and Jarred Smith had a pair of goals apiece, while Mike Wolff had a goal and an assist for two points. Jesse Fratkin had two points as well with a goal and an assist. Mike Clemente made 23 stops to earn the win.

Brown took the first lead of the game with 12:19 left in the first period on a goal by Wolff with assists to Mike Juola and Jeremy Russell. Colgate fought back a few minutes later to tie the game at one on a 5-on-3 power play. Wade Poplawski made a great move in the neutral zone to beat a double team and found Brisebois on a cross-ice pass. The senior then ripped a one-timer for his team leading 13th goal of the season. Austin Smith was given a second assist on the goal.

The tie lasted under two minutes as the Bears regained the lead on a goal by Fratkin with assists to Garnet Hathaway and Dennis Robertson. Colgate won the shot battle in the first frame by an 11-8 advantage.

The Bears increased the lead to 3-1 on a power play goal by Zolnierczyk 2:12 into the second period. Dennis Robertson took a shot from the point that Zolnierczyk tipped in from the high slot. The goal came 48 seconds into the man advantage.

Nasca got the Raiders back in the game at 3-2 with 6:27 left in the second period. Mike McCann sent a pass over to Nasca and the junior fired a one-timer past Clemente for his second of the career with the assists to McCann and Jack McNamara.

The jump in Colgate's step only lasted 59 seconds as Brown answered with 5:28 left in the period with Zolniercyzk scoring his second of the night with Chris Zaires earning the assist. The Raiders looked to get the momentum twice tonight, only having it taken away less than two minutes later.

Price got the Raiders off to a great start in the third period with his fourth of the season with a blast from the blueline, 37 seconds in to the final frame. Brisebois tallied his second point of the night with an assist. Brown scored less than two minutes later to once again shutdown the Raider momentum and take a 5-3 lead with Jarred Smith scoring his first of the season with assists to David Brownschilde and Bobby Farnham.

Colgate continued to fight back as Bartliff tipped in a Thomas Larkin shot from the point on the power play to make it 5-4 with 13:49 left in the game. Robbie Bourdon also assisted on the play and had a pair of assists on the road trip. Jarred Smith scored his second of the night to close the scoring at 6-4 with less than two minutes left.

The Raiders will be traveling to Rensselaer next weekend as the Engineers missed out on the bye because the Engineers settled for a 2-2 tie with Quinnipiac. Cornell earned the bye even though the Big Red loss to Yale tonight. Princeton got blown out by Union, who won the regular season title, and the Tigers are seeded sixth.

ECAC Hockey will announce dates and times of the upcoming playoff series during the week. So stay tuned to gocolgateraiders.com for further updates.

NOTES: The Raiders closed the season against Brown for the first time in the series history … Colgate scored its fifth 5-on-3 goal of the season in the first period … Colgate scored twice on the power play for the second time in the last four games … sixth score for Brisebois in the last 10 games and he has 15 points in his last 15 games after adding an assist as well … the Raiders failed to score first for the 19th time this year … Nasca scored his second career goal and had his first point against a team other than Dartmouth … his previous two points came at Thompson Arena this season … Price score his second goal in the last four games and has five points in those games.