HAMILTON – It was as
Tyler Penner beat the horn by putting away his own rebound that the Colgate men's hockey program was able to force overtime against No. 7 Clarkson on Friday evening at Class of 1965 Arena. Although the conference foes settled in a 1-1 tie, the Raiders earned a point in the standings to secure home ice for the First Round of the ECAC Tournament.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first period was very methodical as the pair of conference foes battled through neutral zone play. Clarkson was able to pop a ringer in the opening 5:00 but the puck was stopped and sent wide by Colgate goaltender
Mitch Benson. Although each team saw a power play opportunity, players were able to break up plays well and get in the way of chances to lead to a scoreless opening period.
Minutes into the second period the combination of
Bobby McMann,
Josh McKechney, and
Ben Sharf hammered at the net but the puck was kept out by a sprawling Clarkson goalie. The Raiders strung together several quality shifts over the period, looking as if they had the man advantage by consistently keeping play in the Golden Knights' zone.
Clarkson pressured back as the period went on and that was when Benson came up with another big pad save. It was quickly followed by a series of stellar saves by the sophomore netminder as Colgate garnered a successful kill. However, shortly after returning the player, Clarkson scored with a redirect through traffic to gain a 1-0 lead in the final minutes of the period.
The third period opened with a series of penalties where the Raiders opted for an early timeout to plan how to attack a 4-on-3 power play opportunity just 1:03 into the period. Although they weren't able to crack the puck past the goal line, the Raiders were awarded another behind a goaltender interference call.
Leaving a few chances at the doorstep, Colgate was unable to finish through traffic in the crease but continued to battle and skate even with the No. 7 team in the nation.
When Colgate was granted another power play late in regulation as Clarkson was called for tripping with just 3:53 remaining, that is when the real momentum began to generate in the third period push. The Raiders pulled their goaltender with 1:14 remaining in regulation and quickly saw a solid redirect on a wide angle shot by Sharf gloved up with 47.5 on the clock.
While still skating with the extra attacker, the puck was sent from the corner up to the blue line. Fed in and crossed to the crease, it took four shots on goal before
Tyler Penner was able to punch a buzzer beater to the top shelf with just 2.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
After Penner's tally forced overtime, the teams skated to center ice for extra hockey. With Benson back in goal, he faced a quick shot in the opening minute and made a pad save to play on. A minute later,
Jared Cockrell had a look at the net that was blocked. Even after a last-second Colgate attempt off an offensive zone faceoff, the horn would sound before either team was able to break the 1-1 tie.
COLGATE SCORING PLAY
• Period 3 | 19:57 – After opting to pull the tender for an extra attacker, Colgate forced play into the Clarkson zone. A feed from the blue line crossed down low to
Paul McAvoy and while his shot was stopped,
Griffin Lunn turned to follow up for an attack at the edge of the crease. Finally,
Tyler Penner hammered two shots at the net and sent his own rebound to the top shelf to tie the game at 1-1 with just 2.7 remaining in regulation.
STATISTICAL STANDOUTS
• With the late goal to force overtime, senior
Tyler Penner recorded his fourth goal of the season and first since Jan. 10 at Union.
• In his first appearance between the pipes since Dec. 28, 2019 (at Ohio State), sophomore netminder
Mitch Benson recorded 22 saves, including six in the overtime session.
• With an assist on Penner's tally, junior
Paul McAvoy now holds three points in the last five games.
• By adding his apple, sophomore
Griffin Lunn now holds six points in his last 10 games played with two goals and four assists.
• Behind a team-high of five shots on goal, senior
Ben Sharf was a force across the ice offensively.
• While Clarkson averages nearly 32 shots on goal per game this season, the Raiders held it to just 23. Colgate ultimately outshot the nationally ranked opponent by a 28-23 margin, including a game-high of 12 shots on goal in the third period.
• It becomes the fourth time this season that the Raiders have scored with the extra attacker.
• With the point, the Raiders secured home ice for the First Round of the ECAC Tournament. It is the first time since the 2017-18 season that Colgate has garnered home ice in the First Round.
THE BOTTOM LINE
• Colgate 1, No. 7 Clarkson 1 – Overtime
RECORD UPDATES
• Colgate holds a 10-16-7 record, and an 8-9-4 mark in ECAC Hockey action.
• No. 7 Clarkson is 23-7-3 overall on the season and is 16-4-1 in ECAC play.
HEAD COACH DON VAUGHAN'S TAKE
"I was really pleased with our effort tonight. Clarkson's a very good team, they're heavy, and they're hard to play against. I was just really pleased with how hard we worked to win some battles against a pretty heavy team and found a way to get a goal at the end to tie it. It was a good point for us.
"Our penalty kill was exceptional tonight. Your best penalty killer needs to be your goalie and Benson was really seeing it tonight. I'm happy for him, he hasn't played in a while and he did a great job.
"It's a good way to finish up the regular season. We need to do the same thing tomorrow night but we know that style of game is in us, and that's exactly what we're going to have to do to."
On securing home ice for the First Round of the ECAC Tournament: "It's a bit of a relief for some guys. We still want to finish – we didn't even talk about [home ice] after the game. Our focus right now is just on tomorrow."
UP NEXT
The Raiders round out the regular season tomorrow, Feb. 29 as they host St. Lawrence in a 7 p.m. puck drop. Colgate's eight-player senior class will be honored before the game for Senior Night.
FOLLOW THE RAIDERS
For more information on the Colgate men's hockey program, follow the Raiders on Twitter @ColgateMIH and Instagram at colgate_mih.
