Mike Borkowski #21 celebrates his sixth goal of the season with Colgate teammate Ryan Johnston Sunday afternoon against Massachusetts. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
(Hamilton, NY- Dec. 15, 2013) Sophomore Mike Borkowski led the Raiders with a career-high two goals against UMass, but Colgate dropped a 3-2 decision to the Minutemen on Sunday afternoon.
Colgate (7-9-2) outshot UMass by a 35-22 margin and had nine power play chances, but couldn’t find the goal to get them over the hump. Eric Mihalik stopped 19 shots in the loss.
Massachusetts (6-11-2) earned both wins this weekend at Starr Rink, returning the favor from last year when the Raiders did the same at the Mullins Center. Steven Iacobellis matched Borkowski with two scores, including the gamewinner. Steve Mastalerz made his second start against the Raiders with 33 stops.
The Minutemen took the early 1-0 lead on a freak play in the Colgate defensive zone on its power play. Colgate was trying to set up a controlled breakout and passed the puck in front of Mihalik. The puck ended up taking a deflection off a stick and into the back of the net as Mihalik was not ready for it.
Colgate had a pair of chances on the power play, but couldn’t capitalize. The Raiders rang a couple of shots off the post with the best chance coming from Wilson from the right circle. The puck got by the glove of Mastalerz and clanged off the bar to keep the game scoreless at that point in the opening frame.
UMass added to its lead with Pereira scoring a power play goal 47 seconds into the middle frame. Shane Walsh found Pereira with a pass to the left circle and he beat Mihalik with a snip shot to the glove side.
The Raiders were able to get back in the game after a number of penalties. No team scored on the power plays that were given out, but Borkowski cut the Minutemen deficit in half at 2-1 with his fifth of the season. He hooked up with Spiro Goulakos and Emilio Audi on the goal from the right point. The shot came two seconds after UMass came out of the box and it was a low slapper that slipped through the pads of Mastalerz.
Massachusetts increased its lead to 3-1 with a power play goal from Iacobellis with8:37 left in the final period. There was nice tic-tac-toe passing in front of Mihalik between Adam Phillips and Troy Power. Iacobellis was on the end of a nice pass from Power through the crease.
Borkowski cut the advantage down to one for the second time in the game with 5:45left in the game. Colgate had a great breakout from its own zone with Joe Wilson finding Ryan Johnston, who shoveled a pass to Borkowski in stride. The sophomore ripped another shot from left side that beat Mastalerz to make it 3-2 UMass.
The Raiders had most of the possession late in the game with Mihalik pulled, but the Mastalerz and the Minutemen were able to keep the puck out of the net to earn the 3-2 win.
UMass took advantage of its power play chances with two goals on five opportunities.
The Raiders have a break for finals and the holidays and are not back in action until Dec. 31 as Colgate hosts the Russian Red Stars in an exhibition game at 4 p.m. at Starr Rink.