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HAMILTON – The Colgate men's ice hockey team honored its five seniors with more than just a pre-game ceremony, as the Raiders kept the celebration going through the night with a 3-1 victory over the Brown Bears at Class of 1965 Arena.
 
Bruce Racine (Bethesda, Maryland) earned his first career victory on senior night with a 27-save performance. Racine stood on his head in the second period, making 16 of his 27 saves in the middle stanza.
 
Defenseman Paul Meyer (Edina, Minnesota) had a career night for the Raiders with three points on a goal and two assists. Meyer came into the night with four career points in his first 59 games.
 
Senior Mike Panowyk (Whitby, Ontario) extended his point streak to six games with a goal and an assist while Josh McKechney (Calgary, Alberta) has a three-game point streak after a pair of assists on Saturday.
 
Bobby McMann (Wainwright, Alberta) also extended his point streak to three games with his goal in the third period.
 
Panowyk got the Raiders on the board with a power-play goal with 8:35 to go in the first period on his eighth goal of the season. Meyer fired the puck on goal and McKechney got a piece of it to jar it loose. McKechney and Panowyk dug at the puck and Panowyk ultimately tapped it across the goal line.
 
Meyer got a goal of his own 3:14 into the second period to double the Raiders lead, 2-0. McKechney fired a pass up the right boards to Meyer. After surveying the zone, Meyer wound up and ripped a slap shot top shelf through traffic to beat Brown goaltender Luke Kania for the Raiders second power-play goal of the night.
 
The Bears got a goal back early in the third period before McMann regained a two-goal lead for the Raiders with 8:33 left. McMann circled the offensive zone before shifting the puck to Meyer at the left point. Meyer fired the puck back across the zone to McMann who rocketed the puck on goal and off a defender's back before it flipped over the line.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 3, Brown 1
 
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders picked up their 13th win of the season to improve to 13-14-5 (9-9-2 ECAC Hockey) while the Bears winless streak extended to eight games dropping them to 6-17-4 (5-14-1 ECAC Hockey)
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Meyer recorded his first career multi-point game with a goal and two assists, nearly doubling his career point total Saturday night with three points
-Panowyk extended his point streak to six games with a goal and an assist
-McKechney tallied a pair of assists as his point streak reached three games
-Racine earned his first career victory with his 27 saves
-Tyler Jeanson (Carman, Manitoba) picked up his fifth assist of the season with a helper
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Colgate outshot Brown 29-28 and had the advantage in the first and third periods
-The Raiders dominated on the power play going 2 for 4 while Brown was 0 for 3
-Colgate held a 38-29 advantage on faceoffs led by Panowyk's team-high eight faceoff wins

FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
"I'm really happy for our seniors that they could finish their regular season here with a win. What can you say about Bruce? I've said it before, he's a great teammate and hasn't played a ton of minutes but he worked his craft like he was a starter. He was ready to play and he's played well."
 
"We challenged Paul a little bit in our meeting. We had a bit of a tough-love video session this morning and we challenged him in a different situations and boy did he answer. He's a great kid, he works extremely hard and he responded with a little challenge from the coaching staff."
 
"Everyone's got something to play for at this point in the season. The playoffs have really already begun. Everybody's still battling for position."
 
Goaltender Bruce Racine
"It feels unreal. It took a while but as our coaches always preach it's hard to win in this league. It was really special to win it on senior night and celebrating with the other seniors. I was really proud of our team effort, especially after the tough loss against Yale."
 
"Before the St. Lawrence game, I had no idea Point was hurt so my start was kind of spur of the moment. It helped because I didn't have a chance to overthink things, I just kind of went in and played my game."
 
"The nice part about Coach Pags, Hammy and Pointer is that we have really good competition in practice and we really push each other to get better. I wouldn't say it's easy but by the time we get to the games but it's sometimes not as hard as we think."
 
Defenseman Paul Meyer
"Last night was a tough night as a team, effort wise, and tonight I just tried to play as loose as I could and just put my best foot forward every shift I could. I had some puck luck and luckily my teammates were there to finish the job."
 
"On my goal, I got a great pass from Josh down low. I picked my head up saw there was a clear lane to the net with someone kind of screening the goalie in front so I figured I'd wind up and take a shot."
 
"My shot's really developed this year. I've been working on it with Hards after practice almost every day and just taking as many one-timers and slap shots as I can. It has really helped me a lot."
 
UP NEXT
Colgate wraps up the regular season next weekend, starting with Union at Messa Rink on Friday night at 7 p.m. and take on Rensselaer Saturday night at Houston Field House at 7 p.m.