MEN'S HOCKEY GAME CENTRAL

HAMILTON, N.Y. (10/12/11) – Fresh off its Mutual of Omaha Stampede title, the Colgate men's hockey team has another test early in the season as No. 4/5 Miami comes to Starr Rink for a pair of games this weekend.

Both games on Friday and Saturday night are scheduled for 7 p.m. at Starr Rink. Fans can access all game day links by logging onto the Men's Hockey Game Central page at gocolgateraiders.com.

RAIDER NATION ON FACEBOOK GEARING UP FOR BIG WEEKEND
Calling all Raider fans! Please help us promote the men's hockey game vs. nationally-ranked Miami this weekend. Please download the picture on the profile page on Facebook and make it your profile picture till Saturday night. We will be giving out random prizes to randomly selected fans who change their profile picture to this ad. Prizes will start today! Thanks for all your help and support!

THIS WEEK: NATIONALLY-RANKED REDHAWKS VISIT STARR RINK
Colgate will be hosting Miami in a huge homecoming two-game set this weekend at Starr Rink. The series begins on Friday night at 7 p.m., followed by the nightcap at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Redhawks will be the first CCHA team to visit Starr Rink since Lake Superior State in 2008-09. The Raiders split those two games with the Lakers. Miami is ranked #4 in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll and #5 in the USCHO.com Poll. The Redhawks were the top-ranked team in the USA Today Preseason Poll, but dropped a few spots after splitting two games at Bemidji State. Colgate played a top-five team last season at home when #5 Yale came to town and the last time the Raiders hosted a team as high as fourth in the country was #4 Cornell in 2002-03.

LAST WEEK: RAIDERS WIN MUTUAL OF OMAHA STAMPEDE TITLE
The Raiders erased two one-goal deficits and got a gamewinner from rookie Joe Wilson to win the Mutual of Omaha Stampede by a 4-3 score against #14 Nebraska-Omaha. Colgate got two goals from Kurtis Bartliff and Wilson in the two wins. Bartliff had the gamewinner in the 3-1 win over Robert Morris to put his team in the title game. John Lidgett stepped up in his first weekend with the Raiders and had three assists with two in his first collegiate game. Austin Smith chipped in with three points on a shorthanded goal and two helpers. Overall, Colgate got points from 11 different players. The win over the Mavericks was the first over a WCHA team for the Raiders since they swept a two-game set at Minnesota-Duluth in 1998. Corbin McPherson was named the tournament's most valuable player, while Bartliff and McPherson joined him on the all-tournament team. Mihalik finished with 33 saves in the win over Nebraska-Omaha, while Alex Evin got the start against Robert Morris and pushed aside 16 shots for his first win of 2011-12.

NEXT WEEK: SECOND ANNUAL CAPE COD CLASSIC
Colgate will be making the trip to Cape Cod for the second-straight season for the Cape Cod Collegiate Classic at the Hyannis Community Center. The Raiders will be matched up with the Army Black Knights once again. Last year, Colgate defeated Army, 3-1, in the first classic in front of a sold out crowd.

COLGATE BY THE NUMBERS
2005 - Last time Colgate had tri-captains
   296 - Career wins for Raider head coach Don Vaughan.
     71 - Votes received by Colgate in the USCHO.com National Poll
     21 - Returning players for 2010-11.
     12 - Active coaches that have reached 300 wins.
     10 - Colgate picked to finish 10th in both ECAC Hockey Preseason Polls.
     10 - Games Colgate plays against current teams in the USCHO.com National Poll.
       5 - Newcomers on this year's squad.
       2 - Previous Meetings between Colgate & Miami
       1 - Returning players that have reached 100 points in their career.

TV SCHEDULE FOR 2011-12
The Raiders will be featured five times on television this seasson, including one on national TV. It starts this weekend with Miami in town and that game can be seen locally in upstate New York on Time Warner Cable Sports. The nationally-television game will be on CBS Sports Network on Jan. 27 as the Raiders visit Lynah Rink at Cornell. The rest of the TV schedule is below.

Oct. 14  Miami      TWCS
Dec. 2   Clarkson   TWCS
Jan. 27  Cornell     CBS Sports
Feb. 10  Yale         TWCS
Feb. 24   RPI         TWCS


FAMILIAR START FOR COLGATE
The Raiders went unbeaten in their first two games for the sixth time in the last eight seasons and the last time they started 2-0 was in 2008-09 when they beat UMass-Lowell and Bentley at home to open the season.

MIHALIK, WILSON TAKE HOME WEEKLY HONORS
The Raiders took home two ECAC Hockey weekly honors after their Stampede victory. Eric Mihalik was named ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week for his 33-save effort in the 4-3 win over Nebraska-Omaha. Joe Wilson was honored as the league's rookie of the week after two goals during the weekend, including the gamewinner against the Mavericks.

ROOKIES MAKE IMPACT
Lidgett and Wilson made the most of their first weekend with the Raiders, combining for two goals and three assists and five points. Lidgett had three helpers, including two in his first game with Colgate, while Wilson played on the top line and scored two goals. Spiro Goulakos saw time in both games, while Brendan Corcoran and Daniel Gentzler appeared in their first game in the win over Nebraska-Omaha.

A MATCHUP BETWEEN PROSPECTS
This weekend's matchup features 14 players that have been taken in previous NHL Draft's. There are eight players between the two teams that have been taken by the three same teams and went to the same prospects camp with their respective team. Thomas Larkin and Miami's Will Weber and Trent Vogelhuber are prospects for the Columbus Blue Jackets, while Miami's Curtis McKenzie and Reilly Smith were taken by the Dallas Stars like Austin Smith. Corbin McPherson is a draftee of the New Jersey Devils as is the Redhawks' Blake Coleman.

TWO-HEADED MONSTER IN NET
Colgate got two great efforts this past weekend from both of its netminders. Evin saw got his first start since Jan. 9 of last season at Princeton in a 5-4 loss. He was tremendous, making a couple of key saves prior to Wilson's insurance goal in the third period. He earned the win with 16 stops, including nine in the second frame. Mihalik was his typical self with his 12th career game with 30-plus saves and he has put up those numbers in 12 of his 27 starts in a Colgate uniform. He made 16 stops alone in the first period to keep the Raiders in the game.

VS. RANKED OPPONENTS
The Raiders are off to a great start against ranked opponents after beating #14 Nebraska-Omaha. Colgate faces 10 teams this season that are in this week's USCHO.com Poll and it continues this weekend as the Raiders will be playing their third ranked team in the first four games. Last season, Colgate faced 18 schools that were ranked in the top-20 and posted a 6-11-1 record, including a 4-4 record down the stretch during last year's playoffs.

QUICK STRIKE SHORTHANDED
The start to the title game against the Mavericks didn't start out well as Colgate took a cross-checking penalty 36 seconds into the game. However, Austin Smith gave Colgate a 1-0 lead with his fourth career shorthanded goal and the team's first of the year. It took the Raiders 37 games to score a shorthanded goal last year, which was scored by Austin Mayer in the ECAC Hockey playoffs last season against RPI. So Colgate has two shorties in the last eight games played.

HOLDING ON FOR A ONE-GOAL WIN
The Raiders did a great job protecting leads all weekend in Omaha. After struggling in one-goal games last season, the Raiders were able to turn the tide in the first two games in 2011-12. Colgate was able to increase its lead to two-goals against RMU after playing with the lead since the 15:43 mark of the second period. Against UNO, the Raiders erased a pair of one-goal deficits and protected their own in the final period to earn the win.

COLGATE ANNOUNCES TRI-CAPTAINS
The Raiders recently announced this year's captains and they will be all on the blueline as seniors Kevin McNamara and Corbin McPherson and junior Thomas Larkin  will be wearing the “C” on the sweater. McNamara was an assistant captain on last year's squad, while McPherson and Larkin will be captains for the first time. The Raiders have three captains for the first time since 2004-05. Darryl McKinnon, Adam Mitchell and Dave Thomas were the captains then and led the team to Colgate's last appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2005. The team earned an at-large bid and lost 6-5 to Colorado College in the Midwest Regional.

RAIDERS PICKED 10TH IN BOTH ECAC HOCKEY PRESEASON POLLS
Colgate earned 152 points in the media poll for the 10th spot, as Yale was picked as the top team for the third-straight year. The Bulldogs, who finished second in the regular-season last year, received 23 first-place votes and earned a record 432 points. Union, which celebrated 20 years at the Division I level by winning its first-ever Cleary Cup regular-season title, was picked to finish second. The Dutchmen earned 11 first-place votes and 397 points. Two other teams received first-place votes. Cornell got three first-place votes and finished third with 356 points. Dartmouth received one first-place vote and finished fourth with 308 points. Rounding out the rest of the poll order (5-12) are Rensselaer, Quinnipiac, Princeton, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, Colgate, Brown and Harvard. In the coaches' poll, Yale received nine of 12 first-place votes to end up first with 117 total points. Union was second with 107 points and two first-place votes. Cornell was picked third with 97 points, while Rensselaer and Dartmouth flip-flopped from the media poll with the Engineers hopping over the Big Green to take fourth with 85 points. Colgate was voted 10th with 31 points.

McNAMARA STARTS GOALS FOR GOOD FOR CHARITY
Senior Kevin McNamara has started a new charitable platform revolving around the hockey teams in the ECAC Hockey called Goals for Good. He has been working with both men's and women's teams in the league to partner with a charity in close relation to their team, school and community. Contributors can donate monetary gifts concurrent with the amount of goals that a team will score over the duration of the season, over the course of a weekend series, or can be a one-time amount. Each week, Goals for Good will post standings on its web site, which will show the rank of each team in the amount their fans have given to the team's charity. For more information, “Like” Goals for Good on Facebook at facebook.com/goals4good.

McNamara on ECAC Hockey's Weekly Radio Show

WELCOMING FIVE NEWCOMERS TO THIS YEAR'S SQUAD
Head coach Don Vaughan and the Colgate men's hockey program will be welcoming five new members to the squad.  Defenseman Brendan Corcoran (Milton, Mass./Bay State Breaker (EJHL)), defenseman Spiro Goulakos (Montreal, Que./St-Jerome Panthers (QJAAAHL)), forward Daniel Gentzler (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Surrey Eagles (BCHL)), forward John Lidgett (Calgary, Alta./Camrose Kodiaks (AJHL)) and forward Joe Wilson (North Syracuse, N.Y./Kingston Voyageurs (OJHL)) will all join the Raiders for the 2010-2011 season.

RAIDER DRAFT PICKS
The Raiders have five players on this year's squad that have been taken in the NHL Draft. Senior Corbin McPherson was taken in the third round in 2007 by the New Jersey Devils, while Austin Smith was a fifth round pick in that same draft by his hometown Dallas Stars. Junior Thomas Larkin was selected in 2009 by the Blue Jackets in the fifth round. Classmate Jeremy Price was a fourth-round pick by the Vancouver Canucks in 2009. Sophomore Chris Wagner was a fifth-round selection in the 2010 draft by the Anaheim Ducks.

CHALLENGE CUP WINNERS IN ITALY & SWITZERLAND
Prior to the academic year, the Raiders went overseas to Italy for an educational and athletic adventure in Italy and Switzerland. Colgate beat a Swiss pro team in the first game and then defeated the Italian U-26 National Team twice to win the cup. The team also visited Italian sites of Milan, Rome and lake side villas of Como and Lugano. Kevin McNamara, Nathan Sinz and Jeremy Price, gave the fans an insight into the trip with the team's Italy Blog, which can be found on the team's web page at gocolgateraiders.com.

COACH VAUGHAN INCHING CLOSER TO #300
Head coach Don Vaughan is four wins away from his 300th win. He will become the 12th or 13th active head coach to reach the milestone. Only Bob Gaudet at Dartmouth is closer to 300 than Vaughan as he has 299 career wins.  Cornell's Mike Shafer and St. Lawrence's Joe Marsh are the only active ECAC Hockey coaches that have won 300 games.

SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS
Miami makes the trip to upstate New York as the fourth-ranked team in the USA Hockey/USA Hockey Magazine National Poll and fifth in the USCHO.com Poll with a 1-1-0 record to start the season. The Redhawks were the top-ranked team in one of the polls at the start of the season before a split at home against Bemidji State last weekend. The first game was a 5-3 loss, while they salvaged the split with a 3-2 win on Saturday. Miami had promise going into the NCAA Tournament last season after winning the CCHA Tournament Title, but fell to UNH in their first game of the NCAAs. The Redhawks were the top team in that regional in New Hampshire.

They are replacing two amazing players in Andy Miele and Carter Camper. Miele was the 2010-11 Hobey Baker Award winner for the nation's top player after 71 points on 24 goals and 47 assists. Camper, who is the brother of former Raider Ben Camper '08, tallied 57 points on 19 goals and 38 assists. The top scorer returning is Reilly Smith and he is back after a 54-point season. The Dallas Stars draft pick didn't play last weekend, however. Matt Tomassoni had a great first weekend with a pair of goals, while brothers Chris and Alex Wideman each had two points with a goal and an assist in the split with the Beavers.

In goal, seniors Connor Knapp and Cody Reichard split time last weekend. Knapp earned the win in the second game with 19 saves and only gave two goals in a 3-2 win. Reichard took the loss in game one against Bemidji State with four goals given up on 23 shots in a 5-3 loss last Friday. The two split time most of the season last year with Reichard earning 23 starts and posting three shutouts and a 15-5-2 record. Knapp, a draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres, got 16 starts and went 8-5-4 with two shutouts.

SERIES HISTORY
These two schools have only played twice and each squad has earned blowout victories. In the first meeting in 1996, Miami defeated the Raiders by a 14-2 score, but Colgate got revenge in 1998 at the Syracuse Invitational Tournament with a 7-2 win. So the series is tied at 1-1 going into this important weekend for both teams.