The Colgate men’s hockey team hosted Union College on Friday night and RPI the following afternoon. The Raiders fought a hard battle Friday night, but ultimately fell to Union 4-3 in overtime. Saturday night, the Raiders celebrated senior night and played another tough game, but were unable to grind out a win.

On Friday, the Dutchmen scored the first goal of the game just fourteen minutes into the first period.  But just two minutes later, the Raiders made it onto the board with senior forward Anthony Sanniti’s first career goal. Junior forward Mike Panowyk and senior defender and captain Jake Kulevich assisted. Period two started off with a tie of 1-1, but Union took the lead ten minutes in when they scored again to make it 2-1.

Colgate started the third period ready to take over the game and did just that when they scored back-to-back goals at 5:20 and 7:47. Senior forward Tim Harrison scored the first goal, with assists from Panowyk and Kulevich. First-year forward John Snodgrass had the second goal, unassisted. Snodgrass and Harrison’s goals gave the Raiders a 3-2 lead, which they kept until Union tied the score with less than five minutes left in regulation.

After neither team scored in the last five minutes, the game went into a five-minute overtime period. After three minutes of overtime play, the Dutchmen took control of a Colgate turnover and clinched the win, their fourth against Colgate in program history.

Saturday night’s game against Rensselaer followed a similar pattern to Friday night’s game, with the most action coming towards the end of the game. Colgate was the first on the board, with a goal 15:33 into the first period. The goal was made by Panowyk with assists from Sanniti and sophomore defenseman Ken Citron.

Colgate kept the lead until eight minutes into the second period, when RPI tied it 1-1. Period three began with an even game, both teams looking to finish strong, but a power-play goal by Freeman – assisted by sophomore defenseman Willie Brooks and Harrison –  gave Colgate the lead.

RPI tied the game at 10:47, and thirty seconds later scored again, taking the lead from Colgate and keeping it for the rest of the game. Colgate outshot RPI 17-4 in period three, but were unable to come back and ended the game with a 3-2 loss.

Sanniti has recently transitioned from defenseman to forward to help the Raiders the best way he can.  His assist on Saturday makes five assists so far this season, but his goal Friday was the first of his career.

“The team played well against Union, we really played up to their level, being ranked seventh in the nation,” sophomore forward Adam Dauda said.

The pair of losses this weekend brings Colgate’s overall record to 8-20-6 and put the Raiders at No. 10 in the ECAC tournament. They will be facing the Princeton Tigers for a best-of-three round series in Princeton March 3-5.

“We have to be prepared for a fast game throughout our practices this whole season. Princeton has lots of Colgate ties, we need to be ready to play against this high-powered attack in the upcoming weekend matchup,” sophomore forward Hunter Racine said.