HAMILTON – One day removed from winning the gold medal at the 2018 World Junior Championships, sophomore goaltender
Colton Point (North Bay, Ontario) recorded 37 saves in his third shutout of the season as the No. 17 Colgate men's ice hockey team blanked Princeton, 4-0, at Class of 1965 Arena.
Point recorded his second shutout of the Tigers this season after recording 43 saves in a scoreless tie on Nov. 3 at Princeton. His 37 saves are the second-most he has made in a shutout and are tied for his third most saves in a game this season.
After making just six saves in the first period, Point stood on his head the rest of the game as he made 31 saves over the final two periods with 16 of them coming in the final frame.
Bobby McMann (Wainwright, Alberta) tallied two points on a goal and an assist while
John Snodgrass (Eagan, Minnesota) chipped in a pair of assists in the winning effort.
Tyler Jeanson picked up his third goal of the season in the third period to solidify the win and fellow freshman
Nick Quillan (Halifax, Nova Scotia) scored his first career goal with an empty netter with three seconds left in the game.
Nick Austin (St. Louis Park, Minnesota) put the Raiders on the board with 1:24 to play in the first period after a lot of back-and-forth play for much of the beginning of the game.
Ben Sharf (Williamsville, New York) fired a pass to
Paul McAvoy (Richmond, Kentucky) in the left faceoff circle where his shot was blocked by a Princeton defenseman. The rebound kicked to Austin in the right faceoff circle where his initial shot was saved by Princeton goaltender Ryan Ferland but another rebound squirted out and Austin pounced for his second goal of the weekend.
Point made several big saves early in the second period before McMann doubled the Raiders lead with his 10
th goal of the season.
Adam Dauda (Kitchener, Ontario) raced up the ice with the puck before centering a pass to Snodgrass, whose shot in the slot was saved by Ferland. The juicy rebound bounced into the slot where McMann was waiting to put home the puck past a sprawling Ferland.
Late in the third period, the Raiders tacked on a pair of goals to secure the 4-0 shutout. Jeanson picked up his third goal of the season with 3:46 to go in the third period after a wild scrum in front of the net. McMann carried the puck into the offensive and was near the goal line before scooped a backhanded pass into the slot. Snodgrass' initial attempt was stopped but Jeanson managed to punch home the loose puck after several jabs.
Quillan followed up Jeanson's goal nearly as time expired, scoring an empty-netter with three seconds left in the game.
BOTTOM LINE
No. 17 Colgate 4, Princeton 0
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders snapped a three-game losing streak to improve to 9-7-4 (5-2-1 ECAC Hockey) while the Tigers fell to 6-9-3 (3-7-1 ECAC Hockey)
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Point recorded his third shutout of the season with his 37-save performance Saturday night
-Point is the first Colgate goaltender to shutout the same team twice in a season since
Charlie Finn '17 had back-to-back shutouts of Northeastern in the 2014-15 season and first in league play since Mark Dekanich '08 during the 2007-08 season with a pair of shutouts against Rensselaer
-McMann is the first Raider to reach double-digit goals this season with his 10
th and added an assist for his 19
th point to tie his freshman season point total.
-McMann also has six multiple-point games this season and 10 in his career
-Snodgrass picked up his fifth career two-assist and two-point game to tie his career high with 12 assists this season
-Austin's goal was his second of the weekend and fifth of the season
-Jeanson recorded his first goal since Oct. 27 and has points in each of his last three games
-With an assist, Dauda set a career-high with his 13
th point of the season
-Sharf tallied his fifth point of the season on his third assist
-McAvoy recorded his first point since Nov. 24
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Princeton outshot Colgate, 37-30, despite the Raiders' 12-6 advantage in the first period
-Neither team was successful on the power play as the Raiders were 0 for 2 and the Tigers were 0 for 3
-Colgate had the advantage in faceoffs at 30-26 led by Dauda's team-high eight faceoff wins
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
"We competed a lot harder tonight, maybe it's just because it's the second night, but we got some better efforts and we did a good job from the beginning. We set the tone early and had a really good first period creating some opportunities. I was pleased with our response in terms of our energy and our compete level tonight.
"Colton's pretty special, he really is. Obviously he's a great goaltender but it's way more than that. He's just a great young man. It was so fun in the locker room when he came in today. He got there right before our meeting so the timing was great. The guys were really excited for him and he was showing off a lot of the stuff he got.
"He's been very humble about it and it was just a wonderful thing for him, the program, and his family who was here tonight. To go out and get a shutout tonight was just icing on the cake.
"
Nick Austin's been solid, as a freshman he's had a couple of games that weren't great but to log the minutes, control the play and create opportunities the way he does makes him a special player. We are really happy with him.
"Bobby responded really well, his line had a bit of an off night last night but tonight he dominated again and he can do that. He's playing with some bumps and bruises right now but I'm really happy for him to step up and play the way he did tonight."
Goaltender Colton Point
"I'm still just trying to play the game I've been playing the whole year and stay consistent. Obviously it's nice to come back to a shutout but the guys really helped me out, especially Willie's block at the end of the game. It's a team effort every time there's a shutout and I'll continue to say that.
"World Juniors was an amazing experience, I learned a lot and I just tried to soak it all in and gather as much information from everyone there as I could."
"It feels awesome to be back, I love being at Colgate. It's been almost a month that I've been gone so it's nice to get back and settle into the routine of school and hockey."
GATE GRAB BAG
-Attendance at Class of 1965 Arena was 1,038
UP NEXT
The No. 17 Raiders hit the road for the first time in the 2018 calendar year when they take on the Brown Bears in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday night with puck drop set for 7 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium.
