MEN'S HOCKEY GAME CENTRAL

HAMILTON, N.Y. (3/8/12) – After earning a bye last week, he Colgate men's hockey team gets back on the ice this weekend to take on Quinnipiac in the quarterfinals of the ECAC Hockey Tournament at Starr Rink.

All games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will be 7 p.m. starts. Live video will be available through America One and all the other necessary game day links are available at the Men's Hockey Game Central web page.

WHITE OUT THE BOBCATS ON FRIDAY NIGHT
Colgate Athletics will be giving out free long-sleeve white shirts to the first 500 fans at the game on Friday night. On Saturday night, there will be a raffle for every fan that walks in the door. Fans will fill out a ticket and have a chance at an Andy McDonald '00 St. Louis Blues jersey, a stick signed by the entire 2011-12 hockey team or free tickets to the ECAC Hockey Championship Weekend in Atlantic City.

THIS WEEK: QUINNIPIAC ARRIVES IN HAMILTON FOR QUARTERFINALS
For the second time in the last three years, Colgate will be hosting the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals at Starr Rink and for the third time in their history, the Raiders will be taking on the Bobcats in a best-of-three series. Colgate got a much-needed week off last week thanks to a Clarkson loss and a Yale and Quinnipiac tie, to give the Raiders the fourth seed going into the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The Bobcats made it to the quarterfinals after going the distance against Brown. The Bears won the first game easily, but Quinnipiac answered with two-straight wins to earn a trip to Hamilton.

LAST TIME OUT: DROPPING TWO AT HOME, BUT EARNED A BYE
The Raiders have struggled down the stretch with four-consecutive losses, but earned the first-round bye for the playoffs. The final weekend of the regular season began with a 4-2 loss to Rensselaer, who has won four of its last five games and has made the quarterfinals after beating Clarkson in three games. The game was a penalty-filled one with 34 combined penalty minutes and Colgate had nine chances on the power play. The next night, the Raiders took on eighth-ranked Union and dropped a 5-3 decision on senior night. Colgate did come through on the power play with three power play goals for the third time this season.

NEXT WEEK: ECAC HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND
Colgate is one of eight teams fighting for a chance to go to Atlantic City for the 2012 ECAC Hockey Champoinship Weekend. For the second-straight year, the weekend will be held in southern New Jersey and the Raiders will look to do a repeat trip after last season's run to the semifinals. The weekend will feature Friday night's semifinal games with the championship game on Saturday evening. The third-place game will be prior to the title game on Saturday. Colgate has made the championship weekend three times in the last seven seasons.

COLGATE BY THE NUMBERS
   312 - Career wins for Raiders head coach Don Vaughan.
   120 - Points by seniors.
   115 - Points scored by the Wilson-Wagner-Smith line.
     57 - Goals by seniors (52% of scoring).
     40 - Career multi-point games by A. Smith.
     40 - Smith & Wagner, First duo since K. Wilson '06 & T. Burton '08 to each have 40-point seasons
     34 - Goals by A. Smith, most in a season since 1981.
     34 - Scores in the first period (+7 margin).
     33 - Power play goals, second-most since 2006-07.
     28 - Goals scored by Colgate in the first or last two minutes of periods.
     17 - Players on the team with at least one goal.
     17 - Career multi-goal games by A. Smith (9 in 2011-12).
     17 - Games allowing two or less goals (11-3-3).
     14 - Raiders that have multi-point games this year.
     14 - Wins when leading after two periods.
     14 - Games with four or more goals (13-1-0).
     13 - Appearances in the quarterfinals under Vaughan
     11 - Shorthanded goals this season (6 by A. Smith).
     10 - Smith became the 10th player in Colgate history to reach 75 goals and 75 assists in a career.
       9 - Players with power play goals.
       9 - Skaters with at least 100 games played in career.
       9 - Power play goals in the last seven games (24.3%)
       8 - Career goals for A. Smith vs. QPac (4 in playoffs).
       7 - Conference wins at home (7-3-1).
       6 - Overtime games this season (2-1-3).
       5 - Skaters with over 20 points.
       5 - Wins over nationally-ranked teams.
       1 - Shutouts this season.

BACK IN THE QUARTERFINALS
Colgate makes its third-straight trip to the conference quarterfinals and for the second time in the last three years, it comes with a first-round bye. The Raiders will be making their 13th appearance in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals under head coach Don Vaughan in his 19 seasons. In their last quarterfinal series, Colgate upset the top-seeded Union Dutchmen on their home ice to earn a spot in Atlantic City. Wade Poplawski scored the series-clinching goal in overtime for a 3-2 win in game three.

50-POINT SCORER
Austin Smith became only the third player in the nation to score his 50th point this season. He is the first player since Andy McDonald '00 in 1999-2000 to reach the milestone. McDonald finished the year with 58 points in 34 games on 25 goals and 33 helpers. Smith was only held scoreless in three games all regular season long and will look to climb higher into the single-season ranks in both points and goals

THE “PRODUCERS”
The Raiders have relied extremely on its “Producers” line of Joe Wilson, Chris Wagner and Austin Smith this season. The trio has accumulated 115 points on 55 goals and 60 assists. The three have only been held off the scoresheet twice this year with one coming in a shutout at Yale and the other a 3-1 loss at Union. They have scored 10 power play goals, nine shorthanded goals and nine gamewinners.

TOP DUOS IN THE COUNTRY
Austin Smith and Chris Wagner continue to be one of the top one-two punches in the country. There are only two other duos that match Smith and Wagner's output this season. Minnesota-Duluth's tandem of Jack Connolly and Travis Oleksuk are leading the way with 103 combined points, followed by Maine's Spencer Abbott and Brian Flynn at 101 points. Smith and Wagner are not far behind with 96 points between the two of them.

GOALS FOR GOOD A GREAT SUCCESS
With the conclusion of league play last weekend, it brought an end to the first season of the Goals for Good charitable competition. The program was excited to announce that over $22,000 was raised this year with Colgate adding over $15,000 to the total. Kevin McNamara, the program's founder said it was unbelievable to watch his idea grow over the course of the season and that it meant a lot to see everyone get involved. Since Colgate raised the most money of the 12 members of ECAC Hockey, the Raiders will receive a $1,700 donation from the Belmont Hill School. All the earnings from that donation will go to the Hamilton Food Cupboard and the check will be presented on Friday night.

SMITH REACHES 150-POINT MILESTONE
The senior forward became only the 10th player in Colgate history to reach 75 goals and 75 assists in a career. He was the 21st to get his 150th career points and is now tied for 18th all-time in career scoring with 155 points. He is currently tied with Andy McDonald '00 and Tyler Burton '08 on the list. Smith became the fourth Colgate player in its history to reach 30 goals in a season after four against Rensselaer on Feb. 4. He was the first ECAC Hockey player since RPI's Brad Trapper netted 31 in 1999-2000. His four goals was the most by a Colgate player since Jon Smyth '06 in 2003. Smith has hit 41 or more points for the second time in his career and Colgate has had a 40-point scorer six of the last seven seasons.

WILSON EARNING HIS WAY ON TOP LINE
Joe Wilson has been on the first line all season and the last five weeks, he has really made an impact. He has tallied 12 points in his last 12 games. He had a goal and two helpers against Cornell on Jan. 28 and then posted three assists in the 8-3 win over RPI. He scored his first shortie of his career in the win over Brown on Feb. 11, which gave Colgate its 100th goal of the season. Last time out he tallied his ninth goal against Rensselaer to finish with four points against the Engineers this year.

SCORING FIRST
In 17 of the 34 games played this season, Colgate has scored first, but recently during its losing streak, the Raiders have allowed the first goal in each game. They are 11-5-1 when scoring first. The opening period has been a successful one for the Raiders in 2011-12 as they have 34 goals in the frame, but its their defense that makes it the best as they have allowed 28 scores for a plus-seven scoring margin. They have 38 goals in the third, but have given up 35 goals in the final frame. Colgate is 8-1-0 when scoring two or more goals in the first.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME
Chris Wagner has been just as consistent as Smith with 12 goals and 32 assists for 44 points, which is second in the league behind his linemate. He has more than doubled up his scoring from a season ago as he had 19 points. He continues to put up points as he posted three points the last weekend of the regular season against Rensselaer and Union. He is fourth in the nation in both assists with 32 and assists per game at 0.97. Wagner is ninth in the country in points per game and leads ECAC Hockey in assists. He has 22 points since the turn of the new year and Wagner is riding a seven-game point streak and has scored a point in 14 of his last 15 games. Wagner and Smith are the first duo with 40 or more points for Colgate since Kyle Wilson '06 and Tyler Burton '08 in 2005-06.

SCOUTING THE BOBCATS
Quinnipiac made it to the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals after defeating Brown in three games in the first round of the tournament. Brown took game one by a 4-1 score and the Bobcats fired back with a shutout in game two and a 4-2 victory in the deciding third game. Quinnipiac has a 19-12-3 overall record and is receiving votes in the USCHO National Poll. The Bobcats finished the league schedule with a 9-8-5 mark to earn the fifth seed. They have been up-and-down the last two months of the season with an 8-5-2 record and have won two-straight games twice during the final 15 games of the regular season.

Connor Jones leads the way with 37 points on 10 goals and 27 helpers, while rookie Matthew Peca had 35 points on eight goals and 27 assists. Kellen Jones has chipped in with 34 points coming on 13 goals and 21 helpers.  All three players are in the top-10 in assists for the league. Connor Jones and Peca are tied for third in the conference, while Kellen Jones sits in 10th. Jeremy Langlois is tops on the team with 16 goals, which is low for a leading-scorer of a team that has scored 116 goals. The Bobcats have 20 skaters with goals this season and each one has two or more. Eight players have reached 10 or more assists on the year.

In net, Eric Hartzell has started 26 of the team's 37 games and has posted an 11-9-6 mark. He has a 2.10 goals against average and a .915 save percentage. He got the start in all three games last weekend and allowed six goals in the three games and earned his first shutout of the season in game two with just 16 stops. Hartzell got the start in both games against Colgate this season and in the first game he allowed two goals on 25 shots, while in the second game he pushed aside 26 shots in a 7-1 win.

SERIES HISTORY
These two teams will be playing in a best-of-three series for the third time since Quinnipiac joined ECAC Hockey in 2005. The teams faced each other that season in the first round and it was Colgate coming out on top with a 4-0 win in the third game of the series, after the Raiders were down 1-0 in the series. In 2008-09, it was an epic series as all three games went to overtime. The Bobcats took game one by a 3-2 score and Colgate fired back to win game two with a 5-4 win. That setup a game three at the TD Bank Center, which Quinnipiac won 4-3 in overtime. Overall, the series is led by the Bobcats at 10-9-2 after the win on Jan. 14 in Hamden.