HAMILTON, N.Y. (3/14/06) – The No. 17 Colgate men’s ice hockey team (20-11-6) will play in the ECACHL semifinals on Friday night for the third consecutive season, a Colgate record. The Raiders will take on No. 7/7 Cornell (20-7-4) at 8:00 p.m., at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, N.Y. No. 12/12 Harvard (19-11-2) and No. 15/15 Dartmouth (18-11-2) will face-off in the first semifinal at 4:30 p.m. The winners of the two semifinals will meet in Saturday’s championship game at 8:00 p.m., while the losers will battle for third place at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Tickets are available through the Colgate ticket office by calling (315) 228-7600, or the Pepsi Arena Box Office by calling 1-800-30-EVENT. Fans can also purchase tickets online at www.pepsiarena.com. All-session tickets, which include admission to all four games and a tournament program, cost $48 for adults, $36 for college students, and $24 for children 12 and under. Single-day tickets cost $28 for adults, $22 for college students, and $12 for children 12 and under.
Both semifinals and the championship game will be televised live nationally on CSTV (DirecTV channel 610). Both of Colgate’s games will be broadcast live on WKXZ 93.9/99.3 FM (Norwich/Oneonta, N.Y.). Skip Barlow and Joe Caprio will call the action. The broadcasts can also be accessed through Teamline (1-800-846-4700, team code 2700), and online via the Colgate athletics website (www.goColgateRaiders.com). The ECACHL will be providing live radio coverage of all four tournament games online at www.WEOS.org. Live stats provided by CSTV’s GameTracker will be available through the Colgate athletics website.
For the second straight season, the four semifinalists finished as the top four teams in the ECACHL regular-season standings. Last season, as the number three seed, Colgate lost a heartbreaking double-overtime game to second-seeded Harvard, 4-3. The Raiders defeated fourth-seeded Vermont in the third-place game. Colgate is 1-5 all-time in ECACHL semifinal games. The Raiders won their only championship game appearance, 5-4, over Rensselaer in 1990.
Colgate is 53-64-9 all-time against Cornell, including a 7-10-1 mark at neutral sites. The last time the teams met on neutral ice was on March 18, 2000, when the Raiders defeated the Big Red 4-0 in the ECAC third-place game in Lake Placid. The only time that Colgate and Cornell have met in a semifinal game was on March 13, 1981. Cornell won the game, 4-3, at the Boston Garden.
Cornell swept the Raiders in two regular-season meetings this year. The Big Red won 4-1 at home on February 3 and 3-2 at Starr Rink the following night. Cornell is unbeaten (3-0-1) against Colgate dating back to January 31, 2004.
By defeating seventh-seeded Quinnipiac in three games in last weekend’s ECACHL quarterfinal series, Colgate attained several milestones. The class of 2006 is now tied for the second-most wins in Colgate history (84) with the class of 1991. The record is 91, set by the class of 1990. Colgate has won at least 20 games in three consecutive seasons, which is a program record. The Raiders have also reached the ECACHL semifinals for the third consecutive season for the first time in school history.
Colgate has only played one neutral site game this year, a 3-3 tie with Brown on December 22 at the Providence College Holiday Classic. The Raiders are 7-7-3 on the road in 2005-06. Cornell is 2-0-1 on neutral ice this season and 6-4-1 on the road. Neither team has ventured out of New York State since January 14.
Senior center Kyle Wilson (London, Ont.) and sophomore center Tyler Burton (Langley, B.C.) are tied for the Raiders’ team lead with 40 points apiece. Wilson narrowly leads the team in goals, as his 23 goals are just one more than Burton’s 22. Wilson recorded his 100th career point during Sunday’s 4-0 series-clinching victory over Quinnipiac. He is now tied for 43rd on the school’s all-time scoring list. Burton was Colgate’s leading scorer in the series against Quinnipiac. He totaled five points in the three games.
Nationally, Wilson’s 0.62 goals per game average ranks 10th. Burton’s 0.59 goals per game place him 11th. Wilson also ranks among the top 20 in power-play goals (10, which is tied for 13th), game-winning goals (four, which is tied for 14th) and short-handed goals (two, which is tied for 13th). Burton’s five game-winning goals are tied for the seventh-most in America, along with senior captain Jon Smyth (Markham, Ont.).
Sophomore goaltender Mark Dekanich (North Vancouver, B.C.) finished the regular season atop all three major goaltending categories within ECACHL play. He led the league with a 1.98 goals against average and a .934 save percentage, and tied for the league lead with 13 wins. Last weekend against Quinnipiac, Dekanich stopped 80 of the 86 shots that he faced (.930).
The Raiders’ combined special teams percentage (53.4%) ranks seventh in the nation. The club’s power play (19.1%) ranks 12th and its penalty kill (82.8%) is 31st. Colgate is 3-9-4 when scoring two goals or fewer and 17-2-2 when scoring at least three goals.
Cornell is the defending ECACHL tournament champion. The Big Red have won three each of their last three games heading into Albany. They eliminated sixth-seeded Clarkson in two games last weekend in Ithaca. The contests were extremely close, however, as Cornell won both games in double overtime.
Senior forward Matt Moulson is Cornell’s leading scorer for the third consecutive season. He has scored 17 goals and added 18 assists for a team-high 35 points. Junior forward Byron Bitz and sophomore forward Topher Scott have also eclipsed the 20-point plateau this season. Bitz ranks second on the squad with 27 points, while Scott is third with 26 points.
Nationally, Moulson is tied for eighth with 11 power-play goals. He and senior teammate Chris Abbott are tied for 14th with four game-winning goals apiece. Moulson has not found a lot of success against Colgate, as the 2003 ninth-round selection of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins has scored just two career points against the Raiders in eight games.
Junior David McKee is Cornell’s primary goaltender again this season. He has played in all 98 of Cornell’s games over the past three seasons. During this year’s ECACHL regular season, McKee tied for the league lead in wins with 13. He ranked second in goals against average (2.15), while his .907 save percentage placed ninth in the league. Last weekend against Clarkson, McKee stopped 50 of 55 shots (.909).
The Big Red’s combined special teams percentage (51.2%) ranks 21st in the nation. Cornell’s penalty kill (88.0%) ranks third in the nation, while the club’s power play (16.2%) ranks 39th. Cornell has succeeded on its last 22 penalty kills, a span which includes all of the team’s last four games. The Big Red are 2-5-3 when scoring two goals or fewer and 18-2-1 when scoring at least three goals.
The pairings for this season’s NCAA men’s hockey tournament will be announced on Sunday; the selection show will be televised at 11:00 a.m., on ESPN2. The winner of the ECACHL Championship will receive an automatic berth into the 16-team tournament. The four regional host sites are: Albany, N.Y., Worcester, Mass., Grand Forks, N.D., and Green Bay, Wis.
