HAMILTON, N.Y. – For the first time since 2018 Colgate will be playing in the ECAC Hockey Tournament quarterfinals.
 
The fifth-seeded Raiders (16-16-4) ended No. 12 seed Yale's (8-21-1) season on Saturday night with a 5-1 victory to earn the two-game sweep and claim the best-of-three series in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament inside the Class of 1965 Arena.
 
Colgate's Paul McAvoy got the scoring started by putting the puck in the top right corner of the net from the left side with 6:28 remaining in the first period. His second goal of the season was assisted by Griffin Lunn and Anthony Stark.
 
Arnaud Vachon added to Colgate's lead when he took the pass from Jeff Stewart and sent the puck top shelf with 16:48 left in the second period. Vachon's sixth goal of the season was directly off the faceoff that was won by Stewart.
 
Yale cut the Raiders' lead in half when Dylan Herzog scored a power play goal with 15:11 remaining in the second period. 
 
Lunn extended Colgate's lead a minute and a half into the third period with his 11th goal of the season. The assisted goal was sent into the upper right corner of the net on a slapshot from the left side.
 
Matt Verboon added an empty net goal with 2:05 left in the third period on a shot that went almost the length of the ice. The goal, assisted by Lunn and McAvoy, was Verboon's seventh of the season.
 
40 seconds after Verboon's empty-netter, Ross Mitton added his own empty net goal. His third goal of the season was assisted by Alex DiPaolo.
 
Colgate's last appearance in the quarterfinal round came during the 2017-18 season when the Raiders upended RPI in the first round and advanced and faced Clarkson.
 
After a fairly clean game one on Friday, Saturday's contest saw a combined 13 penalties called. Nine of those were against Colgate, but the Raiders' defense stifled Yale and allowed just one successful power play in the Bulldogs nine opportunities.
 
Colgate's Mitch Benson stopped 29 of Yale's shots in net. The senior improved to 8-5-3 in goal this season.
 
The Raiders took 24 shots on goal and won 42 of the 78 faceoffs. 
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
 
"I am just so happy for our guys. Our goal all along was to work to get better every day. We had a process that every guy on the team had a part in creating and we stuck to that process all year. Tonight was special for a lot of guys but especially our seniors and "super seniors" Paul and Josh. To win in '65 for the last time is something they will remember forever.
 
"We will enjoy this tonight and then turn our focus to Cornell. We know we have a huge challenge ahead of us but we will continue to do what we have focused on all year and that is to get a little better every day. Onward!"
 
UP NEXT
Colgate advanced to the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament next weekend at fourth-seeded Cornell. The best-of-three series gets underway on Friday in Ithaca.