Colgate goalie Eric Mihalik made 22 saves in a shutout performance Saturday night against Sacred Heart. The Raiders rolled to a 9-0 win over the Pioneers for a sweep of the two-game series. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
By Matt Faulkner
(Hamilton, NY – Jan. 5, 2013) The Colgate men’s hockey team had another offensive explosion on Saturday night with a 9-0 win over Sacred Heart as Daniel Gentzler and Kyle Baun netted two goals apiece to lead the way.
Colgate (11-7-2) dominated from the first drop of the puck to make it five consecutive wins. The Raiders had 14 skater record points and nine had multi-point games. Gentzler posted his first collegiate multi-goal game. Eric Mihalik had to make 22 saves to earn his third career shutout in the win.
“I was proud of our total team effort tonight,” head coach Don Vaughan said. “We got off to a great start with Joe Wilson’s goal and controlled most of the game from there. Mihalik played well from start to finish and made some good saves to earn the shutout.”
The Raiders didn’t waste any time getting on the scoreboard with Wilson tallying his third of the weekend just 17 seconds into the game. Kurtis Bartliff got into the zone and fired a shot on net and Steve Legatto made the stop, but left a fat rebound that Wilson one-timed into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
Gentzler then increased the advantage to 2-0 with 12:45 left in the first period. Ryan Johnston slid a pass over to Gentzler in front of the net and he jammed it home for his second of the weekend. Colgate outshot the Pioneers in the first period by a 19-5 margin.
Just like last night, the Raiders opened it up in the second period and after three goals in the first game, Colgate did two better with five tonight. Colgate went into the third with a 7-0 lead.
Bartliff got it started with another quick goal for the home team with his seventh of the year coming 36 seconds into the period to make it 3-0. Robbie Bourdon added his second assist on the play. Then Tyson Spink made it 4-0 just over a minute later with assists to John Lidgett and Nathan Sinz. The senior defender took a shot from the point and Lidgett deflected it over to Tyson Spink for the goal.
The Raiders increased the lead to 5-0 with 13:20 remaining in the period with Baun scoring his team-leading ninth of the year with assists to the Spink twins. Gentzler then made it four goals in the period with his second of the night after great stick work from Billy Rivellini. The senior put the stick between his legs at the near post and slipped a pass to a wide open Gentzler at the opposite post for the 6-0 advantage.
Baun joined Gentzler with two goals just 10 seconds later with his 10th of the year with 9:42 left in the second to push the lead up to 7-0. The tally closed out the second and was assisted by Jeremy Price and Brendan Corcoran.
The third period was played very quickly, but the Raiders were able to find the net twice in the final 20 minutes. Bourdon got his multi-point game with his seventh goal of the season coming with 11:41 left in the game to put an eight spot on the board. The goal was on the power play and he intercepted a clearing attempt and skated to the middle of the ice. His shot rang off the post and into the net.
Lidgett joined the multi-point club with his third goal of the season to make it 9-0. Borkowski pass it up to Lidgett on a rush up ice and the forward ripped a wrister top shelf. Ryan Johnston was given an assist as well for his second of the night.
Colgate was ready to go today and it showed on the shot chart as the Raiders fired 47 shots on net to only 22 for the visitors. Colgate went 1-for-4 on the power play.
Sacred Heart (0-17-2) had all three goalies play tonight and each gave up a goal and Andrew Bodnarchuk led the way with 16 saves in 29 minutes.
The Raiders will be off next week and will be in action again on the weekend of Jan. 18 and 19 at RPI and Union.
NOTES: Colgate extended its streak with a power play goal to six games … Tyson and Tylor Spink now have scored a point in six-straight … Baun tallied points in four-straight games and has a total of nine points during the streak … Fifth straight game with five or more goals … scored at least two goals in five consecutive periods … the Raiders are now averaging 3.6 goals per game … Mihalik tallied his third career shutout and first of the season … Colgate has outscored its opponents, 31-12, during the win streak.