BOX SCORE

TROY, N.Y. (2/4/12) – Austin Smith became only the fourth player in Colgate history to reach 30 goals in a single season after scoring four times in the 20th-ranked Raiders' 8-3 win over Rensselaer on Saturday night at Houston Field House.

Colgate (15-10-3, 9-6-1 ECAC) saw Smith tally a career-high four goals, while Robbie Bourdon tallied two goals and an assist for three points. Jeremy Price, Chris Wagner and Joe Wilson each had a pair of helpers in the win. Thomas Larkin and Nick Prockow also scored goals for the Raiders. Alex Evin earned his fifth win of the year and 18th of his career with 28 saves.

The Engineers (7-19-2, 4-10-2 ECAC) got goals from Guy Leboeuf, Patrick Cullen and Zach Schroeder in the loss. Bryce Merriam got the start and gave up a total of five goals, including four in the first 36 minutes of action. Scott Diebold came in to replace Merriam and gave up three goals on 10 shots. Merriam then came back in the game for the final 13 minutes. He made 18 stops and took the loss.

Smith jumped from 11th on the all-time single-season scoring list to the sixth position after tonight. He has 73 goals in his career, which is just outside the top-10. He still has work to do to reach the top-10 in total points as he has 148 and 10th all-time has 168.  He has a nine-goal lead as the nation's top scorer and at the end of the game was leading the country in points with 45.

The Raiders opened the scoring with a power play goal from Smith with 10:27 left in the first frame. Bourdon and Price added the assists. The Raiders scored on their first power play and Smith got started with his first of four on the night and his fifth goal on the man advantage.

Bourdon pushed the lead up to 2-0 with less than three minutes left in the first.  Bourdon rushed down the ice with Mayer and flipped the puck, looking for the senior and the puck deflected off of a Rensselaer stick and into the net. Colgate came out in the first and outshot the Engineers, 10-6.

Rensselaer got on the board just over three minutes into the second period to cut the Raider lead to 2-1. Leboeuf scored from the point as the puck went through traffic and beat Evin. Smith answered right away to get back the two-goal lead as the Engineers coughed the puck up right in front of Diebold and he buried it. Joe Wilson did an excellent job putting pressure on the defense to force the turnover.  The goal came 1:34 after the Engineers cut the lead to one.

The Raiders increased the lead to 4-1 with Prockow scoring from the right faceoff dot. He pulled up, put a wrister on Merriam right before he was checked and it went five-hole for his third of the season. Price and Kurtis Bartliff were given assists on the play. Smith notched his third career hat trick after a lucky bounce off the end boards. He went in on the forecheck and as Diebold, who just entered the game, went to play the puck behind the net, it kicked out to Smith in the slot and he put it home.

After failing to score on a 5-on-3, the Raiders saw Larkin tally his fourth goal of the season and first on the power play. The goal came right after the Engineers cleared off the 5-on-3. Corbin McPherson gloved down a clearing attempt and connected with Larkin along the blueline. He then ripped a bomb from the point that got by Deibold. Smith then netted his fourth of the game on an easy shot from the slot to make it 7-1. Bourdon then got in on the scoring with his 10th of the year with assists from Matt Firman and Mayer. The goal came with 5:43 left in the game. Schroeder and Cullen closed out the scoring in the final minutes to make the final score 8-3.

Colgate outshot Rensselaer, 33-31, and scored two power play goals on seven chances. The Engineers got one goal on the man advantage on seven opportunities.

The Raiders will be back at Starr Rink this coming weekend to host Yale and Brown with the matchup against the Bulldogs on Time Warner Cable Sports. Both games are set for a 7 p.m. faceoff. 

NOTES: The game was the 35th annual Big Red Freakout at Houston Field House … Colgate scored first for the sixth time in the last seven games …  Smith tallied his ninth multi-goal game of the season and is back to averaging a goal a game … he has hit two goals 16 times in his career … Price set a career-high with his four multi-assist goal of the season … Smith tallied his third career hat trick and second of the season and the first one against an opponent that wasn't Quinnipiac …  Colgate is now outscoring opponents in the first period, 29-19 (+10) …  the Raiders scored five goals in the first two periods for the first time since Oct. 28 against Niagara …  first time since beating Canisius 9-0 in 2006 that Colgate reached eight goals … first time in conference since a 9-4 win against Vermont in 2004 …  the Raiders are now tied with Harvard for third in ECAC Hockey with 19 points.