HAMILTON – The Colgate men's hockey program unofficially kicked off the 2018-19 campaign on Sunday afternoon as they hosted Guelph for exhibition play at Class of 1965 Arena. The Raiders offense was highlighted by five different goal-scorers in the Raiders dominant 5-2 victory over its Canadian opponent.
The first period was kickstarted when freshman
Jeff Stewart tallied the Raiders first goal of the game on his first collegiate shift just 51 seconds in, and was assisted by fellow freshman
Griffin Lunn. Midway through the period, junior
Jacob Panetta added to the Colgate lead when he notched his first goal since Nov. 25, 2017 (at Western Michigan) by an even strength goal with a tic-tac-toe play down low.
Just as the first period had a quick start, it had an exciting ending as sophomore
Trevor Cosgrove battled to buzzer as he increased the Raiders lead to 3-0 with just 5.3 seconds remaining before the intermission.
Although Guelph first got on the board in a penalty-ridden second period with a power play goal on a long shot on the net, Colgate continued to showcase it's offense in the third period with another pair of goals before the final horn. Nearly midway through, junior
Bobby McMann earned the Raiders lone goal with the man advantage on the day, before senior
Adam Dauda capped off a three-point night by an even strength goal with 6:55 remaining in regulation.
The exhibition game serves as the unofficial start to the season, before Colgate begins the regular season next weekend at home against New Hampshire.
STATISTICAL STANDOUTS
• Lighting up the score sheet was senior
Adam Dauda, as he led the Raiders with three points by one goal and two assists. Outside of it being an exhibition game, the three-point performance would be a career-high marker for the Kitchener, Ontario native.
• Following up with a two-point night was the 2017-18 leading scorer
Bobby McMann by Colgate's fourth goal and an assist. Last season, McMann marked a team-leading 30 points and has marked a team-high of 11 total multi-point performances in his career in his previous two seasons.
• The freshman class stood out in their unofficial first career game, and wasting no time making an impact was forward
Jeff Stewart. A native of Surrey, British Columbia, Stewart notched a goal just 00:51 into the game igniting the Raiders dominant first period, and was assisted by fellow freshman
Griffin Lunn.
• It was an all-fresh presence in the crease as first-year goaltenders
Mitch Benson and
Andrew Farrier split time defending the Colgate goal. Benson allowed just one goal against on 14 shots faced after starting the first 31:22 of action, while Farrier followed up by marking seven saves on eight total shots faced in the final 28:09.
• Also marking a multi-point night was sophomore
Trevor Cosgrove by the combination of a goal and an assist. In his career, Cosgrove has tallied two multi-point nights.
• Overall, Colgate went 1-for-6 on the power play, and successfully defended 5-of-6 penalty kills.
• Colgate's 34 shots on goal were the most since tallying 35 against St. Lawrence on Feb. 9, 2018.
THE BOTTOM LINE
• Colgate 5, Guelph 2
COACH VAUGHAN'S TAKE
"I was really pleased with the offense. We talked a lot this year about having to generate our offense from the blue line, and I think our defense did a great job tonight of getting the pucks through to the net. As a result we got a couple of goals off of it. There was a lot of good tonight. Obviously there are still things to work on, but I was pleased at the fact that we spread the goal-scoring around."
"I thought all of the freshmen played really well tonight. I thought in particular that Stewart and Lunn were really solid in their first game. They didn't seem to have any nerves at all. Obviously Stewart got the first goal by just going hard to the net, and Lunn hounded pucks all night long and was really solid. We got both freshmen goalies in which is great, and they looked comfortable. We know that it's not going to get easier, it's going to get tougher, and we're ready to have a good week of practice ahead of us and get ready for UNH."
"I think our penalty killing was really solid, but I think we need to move the puck more on the power play. I thought we were hanging on a bit too long. We had a couple of 5-on-3s that didn't generate much, so special teams play is going to be huge and we need to get that ready. We'll be working on that this week."
UP NEXT
Colgate remains at home this week as it prepares for the regular season opener against New Hampshire next weekend. The non-conference series takes place at Class of 1965 Arena on Friday, Oct. 12 and Saturday, Oct. 13.
FOLLOW THE RAIDERS
For more information on the Colgate men's hockey program, follow the Raiders on Twitter @ColgateMIH and Instagram at colgate_mih.
