On Saturday October 21, Colgate men’s ice hockey hit the road to take on the Canisius Golden Griffins in Buffalo, New York. The Colgate men’s hockey team had not played the Golden Griffins in the previous seasons so they didn’t know what to expect, nonetheless they came out firing on all cylinders. The game was an absolute battle with twists and turns all throughout the three periods. Sophomore goalie Colton Point, who suffered an injury last week, was back in full force defending the goal beautifully. In addition, several first-years stepped up and came to play by demonstrating important composure in key moments. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to overcome the Golden Griffins and the game ended with a 3-3 tie.

The Golden Griffins were first to get on the scoreboard in the first 70 seconds of the second period to gain a 1-0 lead. Only 18 seconds later, sophomore forward Bobby McMann evened the score, tying the game up at 1-1. The game remained tied for the next 14 minutes until Raider sophomore defender Paul Meyer scored with an assist by first-year forward Tyler Jeanson to increase the score to 2-1. That was Meyer’s first career goal of the season as well as Jeanson’s first career assist of the season. 

After their second goal, the Raiders took control of the game, and first-year defender Trevor Cosgrove netted his first career goal with an assist from sophomore forward Jared Cockrell to bring the score to 3-1. Although the momentum appeared to be clearly in Colgate’s favor, Canisius came storming back. Trailing 1-3 at the beginning of the third period Canisius scored within the first 34 seconds. With just 59.6 seconds left Canisius was able to level the score at 3-3.

“Although we didn’t end up winning the game this Saturday, the season is showing a lot of promise and we will continue to improve with every game, as we are a very young team,” Cockrell said.

Evidently, the underclassmen had an extremely strong game playing well under pressure. Point has seven career games with 30 or more saves and three such games this season. In addition, it was the second time this season that two players scored a first career goal. Cockrell was happy about the team’s performance on Saturday and believes that the team has a promising season ahead of them.

“Each weekend we are still impressed with the confidence of the freshman and their ability to adapt to such crucial roles on the team has been extremely helpful for us,” Cockrell said.

Senior forward Evan Peterson was also proud of the team’s performance, but believes that they have some things to work on before their next game.

“We had a good start to the game, but were inconsistent throughout the overall game. We got caught watching the puck and not getting back into position which ultimately affected our play and allowed the Golden Griffins back into the game,” Peterson said.  

Overall this was a strong performance from the men’s hockey team. Although they weren’t able to capitalize on their 3-1 lead they still fought hard and finished with a tied game.     

This upcoming weekend Colgate takes on Arizona State at home for parent’s weekend. The Raiders hope to make adjustments and fix their mistakes by simplifying their game plan in order to defeat a tough Arizona State team.

Contact Lauren Hyland

at lhyland@colgate.edu.