Photo Gallery

HAMILTON – Colgate men's ice hockey sophomore goaltender Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) made 38 saves Friday night as the Raiders held on to knock off the Merrimack Warriors, 2-1, at Class of 1965 Arena.
 
Point allowed just one goal for the second straight game as he stood tall between the pipes, recording his fourth most saves in a game in his young career.
 
Point's 17 first period saves are his second most in a single-period in his career after making 18 in the third period at Quinnipiac on Jan. 13.
 
Jared Cockrell (Readfield, Maine) continued his impressive start to the season with his third goal in two games while Mike Panowyk (Whitby, Ontario) tallied his first.
 
Panowyk got the Raiders on the board 7:05 into the first period with his first goal of the season and his 40^th career point. Ken Citron (Cos Cob, Connecticut) made a great play along the right boards to keep the puck in the zone. He skated along the boards before centering a feed from behind the goal. The puck deflected off Evan Peterson's (Lakeville, Minnesota) stick before Panowyk buried the puck past Merrimack goaltender Drew Vogler.
 
Cockrell netted his team-leading third goal of the season about seven-and-a-half minutes later to double the Raiders lead. Josh McKechney (Calgary, Alberta) had his pass deflected to Willie Brooks (Locust, New Jersey) where Brooks flung the puck towards the goal. Cockrell made a great play to corral the puck down and in one motion backhand the puck past Vogler to make it 2-0.
 
Merrimack pulled back within a goal with 8:03 left in the 3^rd period as Ludvig Larsson redirected home an Aaron Titcomb blast from the point to cut the Raiders lead to 2-1. Point had made 35 saves to open the game before Larsson's goal on the Warriors 36^th shot of the game.
 
Point held strong through the final horn, making a save as time expired to preserve the Raiders' 2-1 victory.
 
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 2, Merrimack 1
 
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders improve to 2-0-0 to open up the 2017-18 season while the Warriors dropped their season opener to fall to 0-1-0.
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Point's 38 saves are the fourth most he has recorded in a single-game in his career, spanning 11 starts.
-Point also had his second most saves in a single period with 17 in the first Friday night.
-Cockrell scored his third goal of the season and ninth of his career, and has scored in back-to-back games for the second time in his career
-Panowyk's goal to start of the Raiders' scoring is good for his 40^th career point
-Brooks picked up his third assist of the season, his most points in a two-game stretch in his career
-McKechney recorded his second assist of the season in as many games
-Citron tallied his first assist of the season with a helper on Panowyk's goal, his 10^th career point
-Peterson got his first point of the season, one game after playing in the 100^th of his career.
-Colgate is 2-0-0 for the first time since the 2011-12 season when they beat Robert Morris and Nebraska Omaha in Omaha.
-Don Vaughan now has 392 career wins, eight shy of joining the 400-career win club
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-The Warriors outshot the Raiders, 39-19, including 10-2 in the final period
-Neither team managed to score a power-play goal as Colgate went 0 for 3 and Merrimack went 0 for 5
-The Raiders were dominant on faceoffs with a 39-23 advantage, led by Adam Dauda (Kitchener, Ontario) with 11 and Peterson with 10 wins.
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
"Somebody once said to me, 'They don't ask you how, they only ask you how many?' but we need to be better. Colton was really good tonight, again. We had a good start, which is something we didn't have last week, but we didn't finish as well as we did last week. It's hard to win, we found a way to win tonight but certainly a lot of things we need to work on."
 
"[Jared and Mike's] compete level was really good, Jared's been our best forward in these first two games and Pano just brings that every night so we know what we're going to get there. It's great to see him be rewarded with a goal."
 
"We've got to tighten things up defensively and limit the turnovers but when we did, what I was proud of was that we bent but didn't break and that's a good attitude to have for a young team. There was no panic and sometimes with a young team panic sets in, especially after they scored that goal, but our guys settled down."
 
"[Colton's] a big man obviously so he fills the net, but he sees the puck really well through traffic. He tracks it as well as any goalie we've ever had here. He was the difference tonight."
 
Goaltender Colton Point
"I came into this season expecting to have a big role on this team. I just want to prove to the coaches that I'm ready for this job and this is just showing them what they can expect from me."
 
"The important thing to remember is that you've got a lot more time than you think you do. The game looks fast, and it is fast, but you've just got to take each play on its own and not get caught up in the speed of things.
 
UP NEXT
Colgate and Merrimack wrap up the two-game series in Hamilton Saturday night with puck drop scheduled once again for 7:30 p.m. at Class of 1965 Arena.