By Matt Faulkner
(New Haven, Conn. – March 1, 2013) The Colgate men’s hockey team stormed back from a two-goal deficit and earned a 3-2 lead, but Yale scored late to tie it in the third and took home a 4-3 win with three seconds left in overtime.
Colgate (14-15-4, 6-12-3 ECAC) was down 2-0 going into the final frame, but Robbie Bourdon and Nathan Sinz tied the game with two goals coming 11 seconds apart in the first two minutes of the period. Kyle Baun then gave Colgate a 3-2 lead with a power play goal with 11 minutes left in the third period. Baun finished with three points, which was one off his season-high. Bourdon is now one point away from reaching the 100-point milestone.
Yale (15-10-3, 11-9-1 ECAC) answered to tie the game with Andrew Miller scoring his second of the night with 5:45 remaining in the third. Then Colgate went into overtime for the second-straight game and it was Yale’s Josh Balch who jammed home a rebound during a scrum with three seconds left to give the Bulldogs the win.
Tyson Spink ended up with a two-point night with a pair of assists, while Jeremy Price and Thomas Larkin added assists. Eric Mihalik was solid in net for the third-straight game with a season-high 37 saves. He has made 30-plus saves in the last three games.
Yale took the early 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the game with a power play goal from Miller. Colgate was able to clear the puck, but the Bulldogs entered back into the zone and Kenny Agostino gained the zone and flipped a cross-ice pass. Before the Raiders were able to get set on defense, Miller connected on a one-timer that beat Mihalik.
Colgate got one chance with the man advantage and Mike Borkowski had a great opportunity from the right circle, but fired it wide. Price had possibly the best chance of the first 20 minutes with a wrister from the left side that went high on Jeff Malcolm. He was able to fight it off though and kept it a 1-0 lead for the Bulldogs after one period. Malcolm finished the night with 26 stops.
The Bulldogs then increased their lead to 2-0 with 12:52 left in the second frame. Rob O’Gara picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and passed the puck up to Balch, creating a 2-on-1 with Clint Bourbonais. Balch threw a saucer pass over a Colgate stick and Bourbonais settled it down in front of Mihalik and tuck it around his outstretched pad for the two-goal advantage.
The comeback for the Raiders began with Bourdon tallying his 10th of the season with assists to Joe Wilson and Thomas Larkin. Wilson gained the zone with speed and got behind the net. He fed the puck out front and Bourdon hit it home to cut the Yale lead down to 2-1 with the goal coming 1:05 into the frame.
The Raiders then tied the game 11 seconds later with Sinz putting a shot on net that was tipped by a Yale defender in front and the bounce mixed up Malcolm and tied the game at 2-2. Tyson Spink and Baun were given assists on the play.
Baun gave Colgate its first lead with a power play goal coming with 11:01 remaining in the third. Price connected on a slap shot from the mid-point and Baun was sitting in the high slot. He put his stick down and deflected it past Malcolm to give the Raiders a 3-2 lead on his team-leading 13th of the season.
The back-and-forth battle continued and a long Yale offensive shift knotted the game at 3-3 with Miller scoring his second of the night with 5:25 left in the third. There was a board battle by the blueline that featured multiple skaters and the Bulldogs were able to come away with the puck. Colgate was caught during the play and it resulted in a low 2-on-1 in the Colgate zone and Miller lifted the puck over the shoulder of Mihalik for his 14th of the year.
The teams went into overtime and Yale had a 5-1 shot advantage in the extra frame and the fifth shot was jammed home by Balch on a rebound in front to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 overtime win.
With the loss, Colgate remains in the 11th spot in the standings and cannot improve its standing for the playoffs. The Raiders will be traveling in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament. Harvard upset No. 1 Quinnipiac in overtime, so the Crimson gain two points on Colgate, so the Raiders seeding situation is either 11th or 12th seed.
Colgate was back on the ice March 2 at 4 p.m. against Brown in the regular-season finale. More to follow.