By Matt Faulkner
(Schenectady, NY – Jan. 19, 2013) The Colgate men’s hockey team got a great performance from Spencer Finney for the second-straight night, but the Raiders took a tough 2-1 loss at Union on Saturday night.
Colgate (11-9-2, 3-6-1 ECAC) saw Jeremy Price score its lone goal on the night with assists to Darcy Murphy and Robbie Bourdon. The goal came on the power play, which made it eight-straight games with a score with the extra man. Finney once again played well between the pipes with a career-high 32 saves on 34 shots.
Union (11-8-4, 5-4-2 ECAC) got goals from Wayne Simpson and Nick Cruice, while Shayne Gostisbehere earned an assist. Troy Grosenick matched Finney in goal with 25 saves.
Union came out skating with nine of the first 10 shots in the game, but Finney was able to sniff out all the shots. However, during a 4-on-4 situation, the Dutchmen jumped out to a 1-0 lead. The Raiders passed the puck along the offensive blueline and Simpson was able to lunge with his stink out and intercept the puck. He then went in alone on Finney and chipped a backhand past the sprawling netminder for the first lead of the game.
Colgate got more opportunities in the second half of the period with Mike Borkowski earning a few chances, but Grosenick was up for the task. The Dutchmen went to the locker room with a 10-8 shot advantage at the end of the first.
The Raiders were able to get on the board to tie the game with Price scoring his fifth of the season. His power play tally came with 9:46 left in the second frame. He was able to skate free into the high slot and sniped a wrister under the crossbar to tie the game at 1-1. Murphy and Bourdon were given assist on the goal.
Union answered a short time later with Cruice beating the glove of Finney to retake the lead for Union at 2-1 with 6:53 remaining in the middle frame. Cruice skated down the left side of the ice and fired a shot that might have crossed up Finney and the puck clanged off the crossbar and into the net.
The third period didn’t yield any goals, but Colgate did have some opportunities. The Raiders had three power plays, however, two of them were less than 30 seconds. The best chance came when Union was called for too many men on the ice. The Dutchmen were able to hold Colgate to just one shot on that power play.
The Raiders were outshot 34-26 in the game, but did not allow the top scoring power play in the country to get any goals in three chances.
Colgate will be back home next weekend to take on Brown and Yale, beginning on Friday night against the Bears.
NOTES: The power play goal streak dates back to the St. Lawrence game on Nov. 30 … Price has scored at least one point in seven of his last 11 games … Bourdon has tallied points in four of the last five games … Colgate is now 2-3-0 in one-goal games this season.