BOX SCORE

HAMILTON, N.Y. (2/24/12) – Austin Smith scored his 50th point of the season, but the Colgate men's hockey team dropped a 4-2 decision to Rensselaer on Friday night at Starr Rink and the Raiders will have to get one point tomorrow night to secure a first-round bye.

Colgate (17-13-3, 11-9-1 ECAC) had Austin Smith score his 50th point with an assist on the first goal by the Raiders. Chris Wagner came up with two assists and now has 31 helpers on the year. Rookies Joe Wilson and Spiro Goulakos netted goals and Jeremy Price had an assist. Eric Mihalik made 19 saves in the loss.

The Engineers (6-21-3, 6-12-3 ECAC) got a great start from Scott Diebold in net as he stole the show with 49 saves, including 19 in the third period. Mark McGowan led the offense with a pair of goals and a helper, with one score coming shorthanded. C.J. Lee and Jacob Lalliberte also scored for Rensselaer.

After a scoreless first period where Colgate outshot the Engineers 18-6, Rensselaer was the first get on the board as McGowan stuffed home a shorthanded goal with help frommLee. On a clearing by the visitors, Mihalik went to play the puck behind the net and Lee swooped in to steal it and found McGowan in front for the score, which came 5:05 into the frame.

Colgate answered with 4:13 remaining in the second with Wilson putting home his own rebound. Wagner hit Smith in the slot, who found Wilson at the side of the net. After his initial shot was stopped by Diebold, he slipped the puck between his pads to tie the game. The Raiders increased their lead to 2-1 with a 5-on-3 goal from Goulakos. Colgate had a great chance with Smith early in the play, but he missed a tip.  The puck came to Price, who switched spots on the blueline with Goulakos and Goulakos ended up with the puck. He blasted home a shot from the point that beat Diebold.

The Engineers fired back with their second goal of the period, which was a power play goal and came with two seconds left in the frame. Colgate took a penalty with six seconds left and Laliberte tipped home a Nick Bailen shot from the point to tie the game at 2-2.

The third period started for Rensselaer like the second ended. The Engineers got a goal from Lee just 16 seconds into the final frame to give the lead back to the visitors. McGowan had the puck behind the net and hit Lee in stride at the opposite circle and he beat Mihalik with a wrist shot to make it 3-2.

Colgate had its chances with 19 shots in the third period, including one great chance for Robbie Bourdon as he received a pass in the slot and was alone with Diebold in front. He moved to his backhand, but Diebold stretched out the pads to deny the junior forward.

Rensselaer added an insurance goal with 1:58 remaining in the game as McGowan netted his second of the game that beat Mihalik from the faceoff dot on the blocker side to close out the scoring at 4-2.

Colgate dominated in shots with a 51-23 shot advantage. The Raiders had nine chances on the power play and scored once. They had 16 shots on the man advantage, but Diebold stopped 15 of them. Rensselaer went 1-for-4 on the power play with four shots.

The Raiders need one point tomorrow night to clinch a first-round bye in the upcoming ECAC Hockey playoffs. Colgate can finish anywhere from third to sixth depending on other games in the league tomorrow and the result of Colgate's own game. Union will be coming to Starr Rink with a chance for the Cleary Cup as they lost to Cornell tonight.

NOTES: Smith become Colgate's first 50-point scorer since Andy McDonald '00 in 1999-2000 … the NHLer had 58 points that season … Wagner is the first to have 30-plus assists since McDonald as well … five-straight games with at least one point for Wagner … he posted his 12 multi-point game of the season, which is just one behind Smith … he leads the team with 10 multi-assists games this season … Smith has tallied at least one point in six-straight games … he has 14 points in his career against RPI … Smith now 18th on the all-time on the points-scoring list, he is two points away from Tyler Burton '08 and McDonald for 16th.