Disappointing Silver Puck Weekend

Disappointing Silver Puck Weekend

The Raiders had a disappointing showing at home for this year’s Silver Puck Weekend, trying to earn their first league win of the season. In game one, Colgate junior Mark Dekanich was replaced by classmate Justin Kowalkoski less than a minute into the third period, after Dartmouth scored its fifth goal of the game without a single response from the Raiders.

Colgate finally got on the board at 3:02 into the third period when junior Mike Werner scored his first career goal. Two minutes later, the Raiders struck again on a rebound goal by sophomore Tom Riley, his fourth of the season.

Down 6-2, the Raiders notched their third goal of the game off a nifty play by first-year David McIntyre on the power play. McIntyre skated into Dartmouth’s zone one-on-one against a defender, passed the puck to himself between the defender’s legs, and then buried the puck top-shelf past the goaltender for his fourth of the season.

Colgate finished the game 1-for-15 on the power play, and outshot the Big Green 40-26 overall, but could not earn the victory.

In Saturday’s game against the Crimson, Head Coach Don Vaughan decided to go with first-year Charles Long between the pipes. Though he played solidly, making 37 saves, the Raiders could not muster enough offense to outdo Harvard.

Down 1-0, junior Jesse Winchester crossed the blue-line wristing the puck towards the net. The puck deflected awkwardly off a Crimson defender and through the goaltender to give Winchester his first goal of the season.

Vaughan felt that his penalty-killing unit played well overall, only allowing two 5-on-3 goals. His powerplay unit was a different matter. “It’s nonexistent at the moment,” Vaughan assessed. The Raiders finished the game 0 for 9 on the power play. “We’re not playing good hockey right now,” Vaughan said. “We’re in a rut and we’re going to fix it.”

“We need to move past [games like these],” senior captain Liam Huculak remarked about turning around the Raider misfortune. “We shouldn’t forget about how awful it feels, but keep it in the back of our minds because we don’t want to feel that way any more.”

Colgate will have another attempt to earn its first league win as the team hits the road to play Quinnipiac, Friday November 17th at 7 pm, and Princeton, Saturday November 18th at 7 pm.