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HAMILTON – The Colgate men's ice hockey team battled Saturday night by taking an early lead but the Raiders could not hang on and fell to the Union Dutchmen, 3-1, at Class of 1965 Arena.
 
Josh McKechney (Calgary, Alberta) netted his second goal of the season and 12th point with his first period tally, while Mike Panowyk (Whitby, Ontario) notched his 10th point with an assist on the goal.
 
Goaltender Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) was solid between the pipes once again for the Raiders as he tallied another 27 saves. Point made 10 of his 11 saves with the Raiders on the penalty kill.
 
McKechney put the Raiders up 1-0 with 10:08 to go in the first period on his goal. He created a turnover in the defensive end and skated the puck out of the zone. After hitting Panowyk with a pass on his left side, Panowyk hit McKechney right back with a pass as he streaked through the slot. McKechney lifted the puck top shelf to beat Union goaltender Jake Kupsky for the early lead.
 
Once again, Point stood on his head in the second period as he made 14 saves on the 15 shots he faced. One of Point's biggest moments of the game came on the penalty kill just over midway through the period when he made five saves within the two-minute span, ending with a stellar blocker save to bat away the puck.
 
The Dutchmen broke through with 1:22 to go in the second period. Anthony Rinaldi received a home run pass from Cole Maier and went backhand through Point's five-hole just after getting slashed by Nick Austin (St. Louis Park, Minnesota) on the breakaway.

Sebastian Vidmar netted the game-winner for Union on the power play with 7:51 to go in the third period, snapping Colgate's streak of 21 straight penalties killed. The Dutchmen worked the puck around the top of the zone before Vidmar rifled a shot high, glove-side past Point to give Union a 2-1 lead. The Dutchmen added an empty-net goal with 14.7 seconds left in the game for a third goal.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Union 3, Colgate 1
 
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Dutchmen picked up their fifth win in the last six games to improve to 16-13-1 (11-5-0 ECAC Hockey), while the Raiders fell to 12-12-4 (8-7-1 ECAC Hockey) with the loss.
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-McKechney put home his second goal of the season and tallied his 12th point, the second-most points by a freshman on the team
-McKechney has two points in his last three games after earning an assist at Harvard last weekend
-Panowyk picked up an assist to give him points in back-to-back games for the second time this season
-With his assist, Panowyk has recorded at least 10 points in each of his last three seasons
-Point recorded 27 saves, including 14 in the second period, and remains second in the nation with a .946 save percentage
-Point also tallied 10 saves on 11 shots he faced on the penalty kill
-The Raiders' streak of 21 straight penalties killed was snapped with Union's third period power-play goal
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Once again, the Raiders outshot a team in the third period as they had a 12-6 advantage. But the Dutchmen outshot the Raiders in the game, 30-25
-Union netted the lone power-play goal, going 1 for 7 on the power play while Colgate was 0 for 4
-The Dutchmen also won the faceoff battle 34-28, while Adam Dauda (Kitchener, Ontario) led the Raiders with nine faceoff wins
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
"I was disappointed we weren't able to get at least a second goal, Colton has given us a chance every night. You're not winning a lot of games scoring one goal so we have to continue to look at way to manufacture scoring. Overall, I was pleased with our effort and thought we worked really hard tonight."
 
"Some of it is just our youth, at that point the guys realize how desperate you have to play but we have to have the mindset that you have to play desperate hockey when the puck drops. We looked a little nervous again tonight, I don't know what that is. We found a way to stick with it, outplayed them in the third and unfortunately couldn't get that second goal."
 
"Josh is a great distributor of the puck himself, he made that good pass to Pano and Pano found him breaking to the net. He protects it as well as anyone on the team. As a freshman, he's playing a lot of important minutes and he's a big strong guy. His future is really bright and we're lucky to have him."
 
UP NEXT
Colgate men's ice hockey hits the road next weekend as they take on St. Lawrence (6-20-2, 2-13-1 ECAC Hockey) Friday night at Appleton Arena before facing No. 3/3 Clarkson (19-6-3, 11-3-2 ECAC Hockey) at Cheel Arena Saturday night. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. each night and all the action can be heard on 93.9 FM WKXZ.