Men’s Ice Hockey Drops the Puck on the 2018-2019 Season
Sophomore Tyler Jeanson provided an assist in Colgate’s 2-1 win over New Hampshire on Oct. 12. He will look to improve on his 11 points from last season.
The Class of 1965 Arena is open for business in the 2018-2019 year: Colgate Raiders Men’s Ice Hockey has officially commenced their regular season play. After losing some crucial talent to the NHL, the team will look to rebound and improve upon their 5th place finish in the ECAC conference last season.
The squad is coming off a season of mediocrity strictly based off their record, but given their strength of schedule, they performed admirably. Last season, they ended with a 17-17-6 record, finishing 5th in a conference where they play among the nation’s best. Clarkson University ultimately beat them in quarterfinals of the ECAC tournament, two games to one. Ironically enough, Clarkson also eliminated the Colgate women’s hockey team from postseason play last year, except in overtime of the championship.
Since the loss to Clarkson, the team has been fighting hard to get back to their years of success. Finishing .500 and fifth in their division is no easy feat, but this team is hungry for more, and that has been demonstrated by their first two games.
On October 12 and 13, Colgate faced off against the New Hampshire Wildcats. Each day, the Raiders left the stadium feeling pretty ecstatic. Both games ended in Raider victory with identical final scores of 2-1. In the first matchup, Colgate was down 1-0 early in the third period, until Tyler Penner, junior for- ward, tied the game. This was Penner’s first goal of the season and first for the team this year. It couldn’t have come at more opportune time: the equalizing shot was assisted by junior defenseman Jacob Panetta and sophomore forward Tyler Jeanson.
Determined to put away the Wildcats, Colgate would not let this game go into over- time. With pressure building ten minutes into the final frame, junior forward and captain Jared Cockrell sealed the game for the Raiders with a strike to the back of the net. Although it has only been a couple games, this clutch performance erases any doubt associated with the status of having a junior as team captain.
Nevertheless, the “C” patch has been more than earned. The man with game winning goal has been a star forward ever since he got to Colgate, and always seems to turn it on when it matter most. During Cockrell’s freshman season, he was fourth on the team in points (16), and finished with the most goals of any rookie on the team (6).
During his sophomore season, his numbers improved, as he recorded a career high of nine goals. The best players tend perform best when the bright lights are shined on them, and that is certainly true for Cockrell. He scored nine of his 16 goals in ECAC play (among the most important games), and three of them notably being game winning goals.
In the second game against New Hampshire, the Raiders jumped ahead early with two goals in the first and second period. There were two athletes in particular who provided the spark for Colgate in this game: senior forward Adam Dauda and junior forward and captain Bobby McMann. This duo was on the same wavelength in this game, as Dauda assisted McMann’s 1st period goal and Mc- Mann assisted Dauda’s second period goal. Al- though the Wildcats answered back late with a goal, they were no match for Colgate’s double trouble, eventually falling 2-1.
The game this past Saturday night was against Rochester Institute of Technology, and was definitely one to forget for the Raiders. They fell to RIT 6-1, as their opponents poured on five goals before the five minute mark of the second period. Colgate’s lone goal came from Jeanson with less than two minutes left in the second.
Although this was not a great start to their mini roadstand, they should have two chances to redeem themselves against Miami University (Ohio) in Oxford, Ohio, on this upcoming Friday and Saturday.
Contact Simon Gerszberg at [email protected].
