MEN'S HOCKEY GAME CENTRAL

HAMILTON, N.Y. (11/30/11) – The No. 14/15 Colgate men's hockey team will look to extend its three-game winning streak as the Raiders jump back into ECAC Hockey play this weekend with visits by Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

On Friday night, Colgate takes on the Golden Knights at 7 p.m. and the game can be seen live on Time Warner Cable Sports in Central New York. The Raiders then face St. Lawrence on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Starr Rink. Fans can view all necessary game day links by logging on to the Men's Hockey Game Central page.

FOOD DRIVE WAS A SUCCESS
The Colgate University Athletics Department food drive raised about 600 pounds of food for the Hamilton Food Cupboard this season. The Athletic Department held the food drive over five games leading up to Thanksgiving this year. These games included men's and women's hockey and basketball games. The food drive has raised over 2,200 pounds of food in the last four years. The department will also be doing a Toy Drive to benefit the Interfaith Council on Dec. 10 during all three men's basketball, women's basketball and men's hockey home events. Fans will receive one free general admission ticket to the game of their choice in exchange for one unwrapped toy.

THIS WEEK: BACK AT STARR FOR CLARKSON & ST. LAWRENCE
After a short trip to Burlington, the Raiders will be back on home ice this weekend as they host north country foes Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The Golden Knights have gotten off to good start at 8-5-3 overall, but they are 2-3-1 in ECAC Hockey and are 2-4-1 in their last seven games. The game on Friday night against Clarkson can be seen on Time Warner Cable Sports in the central New York area. The Saints are the total opposite as they started out slow, losing five in a row to begin the season with four of the six coming against ranked teams. Recently, they have rebounded and are tied with the Raiders, sitting 4-2-0 in ECAC Hockey. St. Lawrence has won five of its last seven games and four have come by one-goal. The Saints were able to get a split with No. 18 Michigan Tech last weekend at Appleton Arena.

LAST WEEK: FOUR UNANSWERED GOALS TO PUT AWAY VERMONT
Colgate continued its impressive play in late November with its second-straight 4-1 win as the Raiders scored four unanswered goals in the final two periods to defeat former ECAC foe Vermont last Friday. Colgate fell behind early, but a shorthanded goal by Chris Wagner and the gamewinner from Joe Wilson coming in the last minute of the second period, put away the Catamounts. Matt Firman added the final two goals and Alex Evin made 33 stops in net to earn his third win of the year. The Raiders are on a three-game winning streak for the first time since 2009-10 and have outscored their opponents 11-3 in the three contests. Colgate scored four goals for the sixth time this season and they are 6-0-0 in those games.

NEXT WEEK: #1 MERRIMACK COMES TO HAMILTON
The Raiders will play its final game before the Christmas holiday on Dec. 10, welcoming top-ranked Merrimack to Starr Rink. The Warriors have gotten off to the best start in the country at 9-0-1 and the best start in school history. They have not felt defeat this season and have won both the close games and blowouts. They have won four one-goal games and have won four by three or more goals. Two of the one-goal games have come as overtime victories. Last week, Merrimack beat up on Alabama-Huntsville by a 6-0 score. It will be the sixth ranked team Colgate has faced this year.

RAIDERS RANKED
Colgate is ranked for the seventh-consecutive week, coming in at the14th spot in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll and 15th in the nation according to the USCHO.com National Poll, which are both one ahead of last week's ranking. Colgate sits at 9-4-1 on the season with three wins over ranked opponents. The Raiders are joined by two other ECAC Hockey schools. Yale dropped to No. 14 and Union improved to No. 9. Colgate earned 266 points in the USCHO poll and 61 in the USA Today poll. The Raiders have eight games left against teams that were in this week's polls.

EVIN NAMED GOALIE OF THE WEEK
Evin held Vermont to just one goal in his 50th career start last Friday night on the road and the senior earned ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week honors for his efforts. Evin, who is also a member of the Colgate golf team, has been solid all year for the Raiders, especially this month. He is 2-0-0 in his two starts as he has shared time with Eric Mihalik between the pipes. Evin has made the most of his time with a 1.38 goals against average this year, which leads the league and his .951 save percentage is also tops in the conference. This month he has given up two goals on 65 shots and had 33 stops at Vermont in the 4-1 win.

FAMILY REUNION
Joe Wilson and his family have many ties to Clarkson. Currently, his brother Matt Wilson is a junior forward on the Golden Knights. His father, Steve, went to Clarkson and played baseball from 1978-81. His uncle, Kevin Zappia, is the Golden Knights' all-time leading goal scorer with 103 tallies.

NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP
Chris Wagner has enjoyed a great start to the season with four goals and 11 assists for 15 points. In the first 14 games, he is only four points away from his total of 19 in 2010-11. He is only one behind Austin Smith in multi-point games this season as the Walpole, Mass., native has five, including three in his last four games. He has a total of seven points in his last five games on two goals and five assists.

MAYER'S MARK
Austin Mayer has turned it on this year for the Raiders, especially on the power play. Colgate has scored 14 goals on the man advantage and Mayer has a team-high four of those goals. He also has two helpers for six points as six of his eight points have come with the extra skater. He is two points away from equaling his total from last year. Mayer has three multi-point games and one multi-goal game.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
The seniors have really stepped up as leaders this season and the scoresheet shows how. All eight skaters have earned points this year with Smith leading the way. The class have combined for 51 points on 25 goals and 26 assists. The 51 points are almost half of the team's output and they are 56 percent of the goal scoring. Evin has done his job in net as a senior with a 3-1-1 record and a 1.38 goals against average.

SHORTHANDED KILLERS
After just one shorthanded goal all of last season, the Raiders have caught fire during penalty killing this year with five shorthanded goals in their first 14 games. Austin Smith has been a one-man wrecking crew with four of the five to lead the nation in shorties. Chris Wagner added his first career shorthanded goal against Vermont and Smith assisted on the score. The five shorties for Colgate is tied with Boston University for the most in the country and when scoring shorthanded, Colgate is 4-0-0 on the season. Coming into this weekend, the Raiders have killed off 14-straight opponent power plays at home. Miami was the last opponent to score on the power play at Starr Rink and that was back on Oct. 14. Overall, they have killed off 10-straight power plays.

CONFERENCE MIGHT
ECAC Hockey showed it has come ready to compete against the traditional hockey powerhouse conferences as the conference has gone 3-4 in the first four games against Hockey East opponents. Colgate has emerged as a league-leader in wins over other big time conference as the Raiders are 3-1-0 against the WCHA, CCHA and Hockey East. Colgate still has three games against Hockey East and the CCHA, including a matchup next week against top-ranked Merrimack of Hockey East.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Clarkson comes to Hamilton in the midst of a nine-game road trip that started last weekend with a visit to Portland, Maine, to take on the Black Bears and the Golden Knights were edged by the Hockey East school, 4-3. Clarkson started off hot with six wins in its first 10 games, but has cooled off lately with a 2-4-1 mark in its last seven games. The Golden Knights have averaged three goals a game this year and have given up just under two a contest to have one of the best scoring margins in the conference.

They have four skaters with 10 or more points, led by Louke Oakley with 17 points on seven goals and 10 assists. Nick Tremblay leads the team with nine goals and six assists for 15 points. Sam Labrecque is tied with Oakley for the team lead in assists with 10 and has added two goals from the blueline for a total of 12 points. Allan McPherson has also contributed with 11 points on the year, coming on six goals and five helpers. On the power play, Clarkson has 15 goals from nine skaters with Ben Sexton leading the way with three tallies.

In goal, Paul Karpowich is in his fourth year as the starting netminder and could be making his 107th start on Friday night. This season he has started all 16 games and has a 1.80 goals against average and a .942 save percentage, which is among the nation's leaders. He has four shutouts this year and had just two coming into the season.

SERIES HISTORY
These two long-time hockey schools will be playing for the 141st time since Colgate and Clarkson met back in 1927-28. The Raiders have played the Golden Knights more than any other team in the history of their program. Clarkson has an 80-45-15 advantage in the series. The Raiders have put a dent in the series by going unbeaten in the 10 of the last 12 games, including a 4-2 decision on Feb. 5 last year, which gave Colgate its first conference win of the season.

SCOUTING THE SAINTS
St. Lawrence makes the trip south with a 5-7-0 overall record, but is tied with the Raiders for second-place in the league standings with a 4-2-0 mark. The Saints lost their first five games and has rebounded to go 5-2-0 since. Last weekend, they split a series with No. 18 Michigan Tech with a 3-2 win on Friday night and a 3-1 loss on Saturday. They average just over two goals a game, but have given up over 3.3 goals a contest.

Kyle Flanagan is the only skater to have 10 or more points as he has six goals and seven assists on the season for 13 points and he has played in just nine games. Greg Carey has two goals and seven assists for nine points in the first 12 games after scoring 23 as a rookie last season. Kyle Essery and Chris Martin both have seven assists on four goals and three helpers. Flanagan leads the team with three of the 10 power play goals scored by the Saints this season.

In goal, Matt Weninger has started 11-of-12 games this season and has a 5-6-0 record with a 2.80 goals against average. He has also posted a .904 save percentage and has two shutouts. Both Bobby Moss and David Grilk have seen time between the pipes as well.

SERIES HISTORY
These two upstate New York schools will be playing for the 137th time since Colgate and St. Lawrence met back in 1927-28. The series is just about even with the Saints holding a 71-62-3 advantage. The Raiders have gone winless in the last eight matchups, including dropping both games last season and being outscored 8-1. The teams last met back on Feb. 4 with the Saints coming away with a 4-0 win at Starr Rink.