Photo Gallery

HAMILTON – Three different Colgate women's ice hockey players scored goals Friday night as the Raiders kicked of the 2017-18 season with a 3-0 shutout of the St. Cloud State Huskies Friday afternoon at Class of 1965 Arena.
 
Colgate's shutout in the season opener was its first-ever shutout in the first game of the season since the team was elevated to varsity competition for the 1997-98 season. In another bit of history, Colgate's seven shots on goal allowed are the fewest since allowing five at Union on Feb. 18, 2005.
 
The Raiders scored a goal in each period of the game with eight different players picking up assists in the opener.
 
Breanne Wilson-Bennett (Markham, Ontario) scored the first goal for the Raiders of the 2017-18 season late in the first period to stake the Raiders out to a 1-0 lead. Livia Altmann (Arosa, Switzerland) corralled a loose puck along the boards in front of the Raiders' bench before sliding the puck to Wilson-Bennett on the blue line entering the offensive zone. Wilson-Bennett skated to the right faceoff dot before wristing the puck past St. Cloud State goaltender Janine Adler's glove.
 
After the first intermission, the Raiders came out refreshed and pounced early in the period to double their lead. Shae Labbe (Calgary, Alberta) won the faceoff back to Olivia Zafuto (Niagara Falls, New York) who then touched her pass to Shelby Perry (Elginburg, Ontario). Perry quickly worked it back to Zafuto at the point, who deked a defender and skated into the high slot and snapped home her first goal high, glove side.
 
Colgate put on a defensive clinic in the second period, holding St. Cloud State to zero shots on goal and just five total shots in the period.
 
The Raiders put home another insurance goal early in the third period as Jessie Eldridge found the back of the net. Annika Zalewski (New Hartford, New York) won a faceoff in the defensive zone to Chelsea Jacques (Calumet, Michigan) on her left. The puck bounced back to Zalewski and after a few strides hit Eldridge with a pass in the neutral zone. Eldridge blew past her defender and snapped home the goal to make it 3-0 with just under 15 minutes left in the third period.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 3, St. Cloud State 0
 
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders improve to 1-0-0 on the season with a win in their third straight season opener while the Huskies fall to 1-2-0.
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Wilson-Bennett scored the first goal of the season for the Raiders, the 31^st of her career to lead the active roster and moves her one shy of tying Elin Brown '09 for 13^th in program history
-Zafuto, a blue-liner for the Raiders, picked up her 15^th career goal with her second period tally
-Eldridge continued her impressive campaign from the 2016-17 season with a goal in the opener, the 23^rd of her career and team-leading 65^th career point.
-Five different Raiders tallied assists in the win
-Liz Auby (Stoughton, Wisconsin) recorded just seven saves in her second career shutout, both coming against the St. Cloud State Huskies.
-The Raiders recorded a shutout in the season-opener for the first time in program history
-Colgate's eight different point-getters is its first since Feb. 10 at Brown in a 7-3 win and first time with eight point-getters on just three goals since Oct. 2, 2016.
-The Raiders' seven shots on goal are the fewest since allowed since allowing five at Union in a 5-1 win on Feb. 18, 2005
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Colgate had a strong showing offensively with a 38-7 advantage in shots on goal, including a 12-0 edge in the second period.
-Neither team scored a power play goal with Colgate going 0 for 6 and St. Cloud State going 0 for 3.
-The Raiders also won the faceoff battle 29-24, led by Zalewski and Wilson-Bennett's nine wins apiece.
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Greg Fargo
"A lot of good things tonight in the areas that we've spent a lot of time working on in the preseason. The group was focused in the beginning of the game, we knew we wanted to get into the way we wanted to play right away and we started well, and finished well."
 
"It's exciting, you look up and down the lineup and the feeling is that the offense can come anywhere which makes us hard to match up against when everyone is going. We had some good looks on net and good to see some people get on the scoreboard early."
 
"The challenge is always to reset and start over, today's game has no bearing on how tomorrow's going to go. That travel day probably affected them a little bit today so I think we'll probably get a much more energized team across the ice tomorrow. We just have to reset, go back to square one and do the same thing we did and find ways to get better."
 
UP NEXT
The Raiders close up the two-game series Saturday afternoon when they host the Huskies in another matinee affair at 2 p.m.