MEN'S HOCKEY GAME CENTRAL

HAMILTON, N.Y. (10/26/11) – The 16th-ranked Colgate men's hockey team returns to New York this weekend for a home-and-home series with Niagara beginning on Friday night at Dwyer Arena, followed by an 8 p.m. start at Starr Rink on Saturday.

The matchup on Friday night is set for 7:05 p.m. in Niagara Falls and due to the women's hockey game against Yale at 4 p.m. in Hamilton, the men's game has been pushed back to 8 p.m. at Starr Rink. Fans can view all the necessary game day links by visiting the Men's Hockey Game Central link.

THIS WEEK: HOME-AND-HOME TWO-GAME SET WITH NIAGARA
The 16th-ranked Raiders will look to continue its hot start this weekend with a trip to Niagara Falls and then a late Saturday start at Starr Rink against the Purple Eagles. Colgate comes into the weekend with three wins in its first five games and is on a two-game unbeaten streak. Niagara is entering the weekend without a win in its first four games, including two Atlantic Hockey contests. The Purple Eagles stand at 0-2-2, but in this series they have won the last three meetings and this will be the sixth and seventh meeting in the last three seasons.

LAST WEEK: RAIDERS RALLY FOR TIE AT CAPE COD CLASSIC
Colgate appeared in the second annual Cape Cod Classic on Saturday night against Army at the Hyannis Youth and Community Center. After a scoreless first period, the winless Black Knights tallied two goals in the second to go up 2-0 on the Raiders. However, Colgate turned it on in the first five minutes of the third with two goals from Austin Smith to tie the game at 2-2, which was the eventual final score. The Raiders power play struggled in the game and got numerous opportunities to put the game away, but Army's Ryan Leets kept the puck out of the net on those chances.

NEXT WEEK: CONFERENCE PLAY OPENS AT BROWN & #6/10 YALE
The Raiders will be opening in their 51st ECAC Hockey season on the road at Brown and Yale. This starts three-straight conference weekends and six games up until Thanksgiving. Colgate will take on Brown at Meehan Auditorium on Nov. 4, followed by a matchup at Ingalls Rink against the Bulldogs, who is 6th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine rankings and is 10th in the USCHO.com poll and is receiving a first-place vote. Last season, Yale knocked the Raiders out of the conference tournament in the semifinals, while Brown won both matchups last year.

COLGATE BY THE NUMBERS
2004 - Last time Colgate had tri-captains.
   298 - Career wins for Raiders head coach Don Vaughan.
   192 - Votes received by Colgate in the USCHO.com National Poll.
     21 - Returning players for 2011-12.
     12 - Active coaches that have reached 300 wins.
     11 - Games left against current nationally-ranked teams.
     10 - Colgate picked to finish 10th in both ECAC Hockey Preseason Polls.
       7 - One-goal games against Niagara.
       6 - Friday night will be the sixth meeting in the last three years with Niagara.
       5 - Overtime games vs. Niagara in series (1-2-2).
       5 - Newcomers on this year's squad.
       2 - Wins over nationally-ranked teams.
       2 - Overtime games this season (1-0-1).
       1 - Returning players that have reached 100 points in their career. 

RAIDERS RANKED
Colgate is ranked for two-consecutive weeks for the first time since 2006 when the Raiders were ranked 17th when they made a run at the ECAC Hockey title. Colgate sits at 3-1-1 on the season with two wins over ranked opponents. The Raiders are one of five teams in ECAC Hockey to be in the top-20 as Yale sits at No. 10, Union at No. 11, Cornell at No. 19, and at No. 20 is newly ranked Quinnipiac. The Bulldogs and Big Red begin their regular seasons this weekend. Colgate lost 20 points in the poll after the Army tie, but remained at the 16th spot, which they are tied with Miami, who they split a two-game series against.

COACH VAUGHAN INCHING CLOSER TO #300
Head coach Don Vaughan is two 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.

TWO-GOAL COMEBACK
Down 2-0 going into the final 20 minutes, the Raiders got two goals in the first five minutes to earn the tie. It was the first time Colgate had trailed going into the third period and the Raiders were able to pull out a tie. Last season, Colgate trailed after the second period 19 times and never earned a tie and had a 2-17-0 record. Also the Raiders gave up the first goal for the fourth time this year and Colgate has a 2-1-1 mark in those games.

SMITH OFF TO BEST CAREER GOAL START
Austin Smith scored two goals on Saturday to push his total to five this season in the first five games. It is the best goal-scoring start to a season in Smith's Colgate career. His previous high for goals in the first five games was two in 2009-10 when he was named all-league and finished with 16 goals and 41 points. Last year, it took Smith until Christmas to reach five scores as he was a bit snake-bitten early on. 

SCOUTING THE PURPLE EAGLES
Niagara enters the weekend winless at 0-2-2 and the Purple Eagles have played three overtime games in the four games this season. They faced nationally-ranked Michigan to open the season and lost 5-0, then skated to a scoreless tie against RIT on Oct. 8 in their Atlantic Hockey opener. Niagara took its second loss in overtime to Air Force and then last weekend the Purple Eagles posted an impressive 3-3 tie against Union at home.

They have only scored five goals this season in their first four games and Scott Arnold has scored two of them for the team lead and also leads with four points. Ryan Rashid, Marc Zanette and Isaac Kohls have all scored for Niagara with Rashid posting three points after adding two assists as well. Nine different players have points. The Purple Eagles are a young team with only two seniors and junior Giancarlo Iuorio is the leader in career points with 44.

In goal, sophomore Cody Campbell has started three of the four games and has earned two ties and has taken one loss. He has made 105 saves on 111 shots for a .946 save percentage. He has allowed just six goals in almost 200 minutes of ice time for a 1.88 goals against average. The power play has been a struggle to start the season as Niagara is 1-for-17 with the extra man for a 5.9 percent success rate.

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 15th meeting between Colgate and Niagara with the Purple Eagles holding a 7-5-2 advantage in the series. Niagara has won the last three meetings, including a 4-3 overtime win at Starr Rink last season. The series began in 1997 with the Raiders winning 4-3 in overtime. The teams have played five OT games in the series and there has been seven one-goal games and two ties in the first 14 meetings. The largest margin of victory was in 2009 when Niagara beat the Raiders 5-1 at the Shillelagh Tournament hosted by Notre Dame.