HAMILTON – The Colgate men's ice hockey team put up one of its strongest fights of the season, coming back to take a late third period lead before the nationally ranked No. 7/8 Union Dutchmen overcame their late deficit to beat the Raiders in overtime, 4-3, at Class of 1965 Arena.
 
With the Raiders celebrating their senior class this weekend, senior Anthony Sanniti (LaSalle, Quebec) scored his first career goal to lead the Raiders' offensive attack in the penultimate game of the regular season. Fellow senior Tim Harrison (Duxbury, Massachusetts) put home a goal for the Raiders as well as freshman John Snodgrass (Eagan, Minnesota).
 
For the second time this season, Colgate stayed within a goal against one of ECAC Hockey's best teams in Union for much of the game. The Raiders answered the call twice, starting with Sanniti's first period goal that came 2:18 after the Dutchmen's Ryan Walker put home his fifth the year to initially give Union a 1-0 lead.
 
Jake Kulevich (Marblehead, Massachusetts) wrapped the puck around the boards for Mike Panowyk (Whitby, Ontario) in the right corner. Panowyk won the battle in the corner, digging the puck out for Sanniti skating toward the end boards. Sanniti had a wraparound shot saved before chasing down his rebound and wristing the shot through traffic to tie the game with 4:01 left in the first period.
 
Union took a 2-1 lead midway through the second period as Luc Brown rifled a shot to the top corner, a lead that would remain until the early part of the third period.
 
Colgate scored a pair of goals within 2:27 of each other to take a 3-2 lead in the third period. Harrison scored the first of the period after Kulevich touched a pass up to Panowyk in the neutral zone who skated with speed to the left faceoff circle before stopping on a dime and backhanding a pass to Harrison unmarked in the slot. Harrison hesitated with the puck before bringing it to his backhand and popping it past Union goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulos' blocker to tie the game, 2-2.
 
Snodgrass potted his third of the season to give the Raiders a 3-2 lead with 12:13 left in the third period. A scrum behind the Union net led to Spencer Foo trying to play the puck out but losing control of the puck that found Snodgrass right on the doorstep. In one motion, Snodgrass swiped a backhand at the puck which fluttered past an unsuspecting Sakellaropoulos to give the Raiders the lead.
 
The Dutchmen's Sebastian Vidmar scored the game-tying goal with 4:43 left in the third period right off a faceoff in their offensive end after a Colgate timeout to make it 3-3. With just 1:39 left in the overtime period, Mike Vecchione controlled a Colgate turnover in the neutral zone before rifling a shot past Colgate freshman netminder Colton Point for the game-winning goal.
 
Vecchione's overtime game-winner hands the Dutchmen just their fourth victory in Hamilton in program history and first since the 2011-12 season. Union is now 4-23-2 all-time in Hamilton, N.Y.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Union 4, Colgate 3 (OT)
 
WON-LOST RECORDS
The Dutchmen improve to 23-8-2 (16-4-1 ECAC Hockey) with their fourth consecutive victory while the Raiders fall to 8-19-6 (6-12-3 ECAC Hockey) with the tough overtime loss.
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Sanniti scored his first career goal in a Raider uniform, making him the 18^th skater to score this season and sixth to score their first career goal
-Harrison extended his team lead with his 11^th goal of the season, giving him two straight games with a goal and three of his last four
-Harrison now has 26 goals and 49 points in his career
-Kulevich picked up two assists for his fifth multiple-point game of the season and eighth of his career
-Kulevich now has 20 points this season, becoming the first Colgate defenseman since Spiro Goulakos in 2013-14 to reach the mark
-Panowyk picked up his first multiple-point and multiple-assist game of the season with two helpers, give him seven and five such games in his career, respectively
-Snodgrass tallied his third goal of the season and 15^th point with his last goal coming against Yale on Feb. 12
-Jacob Panetta (Belleville, Ontario) led all skaters with six blocked shots while six different players recorded at least three blocked shots in the game
-Point made another 31 saves for the Raiders in goal, his second straight start with 30 or more saves and fourth of the season
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Union outshot Colgate, 35-23, including a 28-14 edge over the final two periods and overtime
-Despite the loss, the Raiders won the faceoff battle, 28-24, behind Andrew Black's (Buffalo, New York) perfect 10 for 10 night at the faceoff dot
-Neither team was successful on the power play with Union going 0 for 4 and Colgate going 0 for 2
-The Raiders have not allowed a power play goal since Feb. 12 and have not allowed a goal on their last 13 penalty kills
-Colgate tied a season-high with 31 blocked shots on the night, their most since blocking 31 shots at Yale on Nov. 11
-In the past two games against St. Lawrence and Union, Colgate has blocked 55 shots
-The Raiders' last overtime loss came in game three of the ECAC Hockey First Round at Dartmouth, a 4-3 double overtime loss that ended the 2015-16 season
 
UP NEXT
Colgate wraps up the 2016-17 regular season tomorrow night when it hosts the Rensselaer Engineers at 7 p.m. The Raiders will honor their eight seniors and one manager: Jake Kulevich, Brett Corkey, Tim Harrison, Charlie Finn, Derek Freeman, Anthony Sanniti, Andrew Black, Emilio Audi and team manager Billy O'Donnell.