HANOVER, N.H. - After cruising to a 5-2 victory in Hamilton three weeks ago, Colgate was hoping it would be rinse and repeat at Dartmouth on Friday afternoon. Unlike the first matchup of the two ECAC opponents, the Big Green would get on the board first. 

Uncharacteristically, the Raiders surrendered a power play goal after Allyson Simpson was sent to the box midway through the first period. Early deficits have spelled trouble for Colgate recently, but the visitors battled back in the final four minutes of the opening twenty. 

Sammy Smigliani saw a great chance in front of the net only to be denied by Dartmouth's Kayla Wormsbecher. The ricochet came right to Danielle Serdachny who saw an open net with Wormsbecher out of position. The freshman didn't disappoint. The goal marked the eighth of the year for Serdachny. 
 

Danielle grabs the rebound and puts it in!
Goal 8? of her freshman campaign.#WePlayFree #GoGate pic.twitter.com/ewCjtyvHVU

— Colgate Women's Hockey (@ColgateWIH) February 7, 2020

Early in the second, it looked like Colgate may have a chance to take a lead as the Big Green took a penalty. The power play would be wiped out just seconds later as Serdachny went to the box. 

Colgate would get its 2-1 lead in just a few minutes. Malia Schneider robbed a puck from Dartmouth deep in the Raiders' offensive zone before firing a rocket, sneaking it under the top bar. 

In the final seconds of the second period, Danielle Serdachny found the back of the net for the second time. Her ninth of the year gave Colgate a comfortable 3-1 lead heading into the break.

Dartmouth opened the third period with a counterstrike, cutting the lead to 3-2. 

Midway through the period, Eleri MacKay scored on a golden opportunity in front of the crease to create the decisive 4-2 advantage. 
 

Eleri extends the lead!#WePlayFree #GoGate pic.twitter.com/Q745n2mjWN

— Colgate Women's Hockey (@ColgateWIH) February 7, 2020

In the 50th outing of her career, Liz Auby tallied 27 saves to secure a Raider victory. 

Colgate improves to 14-11-6 and 8-6-3 in league play. The Raiders now have 17 points to further their pursuit of Yale and Clarkson in the ECAC standings in the final three weeks of the season. 

Bottom Line

• Colgate 4, Dartmouth 2

Facts & Figures

• Shots were even in the first period, but Colgate held an advantage in the second and third. Final shots came to 33-29.

• After a two goal performance, Danielle Serdachny is seven points away from tying Sam Hunt and Bailey Larson for most points in a season by a freshman. Serdachny leads the team in points with 25. 

• "Dartmouth came out really hard to start the game and we were feeling our way through the first period a bit more than I would've liked in the beginning. I was pleased with our effort to battle back although we never made it easy on ourselves taking the penalties that we took. Offensively played well and sustained offensive zone time at various points. I really liked our second period, which was key in us getting the outcome we wanted."

• "This is a hard working team and we felt if we continued to improve as the game went on, we'd like how things ended up. We focused on playing the right way. I give our group a lot of credit for sticking with it."

• "Harvard's a good team with a lot of depth up front. It'll be a different experience playing them on the road. These are important points as far as how things shake out in the playoff picture for the ECAC. We need to play well on the road tomorrow and we'll make adjustments to put a complete 60 minutes together." 

Colgate travels to Cambridge, Mass for a weekend wrap-up with No. 10 Harvard. Puck drop is set for 3 p.m.