CANTON, N.Y. – The Colgate men's ice hockey team put up a hard fight and battled back from an early third period deficit Friday night but the St. Lawrence Saints scored three goals in the final 11 minutes as the Raiders fell 5-2 at Appleton Arena.
 
Freshmen Paul McAvoy (Richmond, Kentucky) and Nick Austin (St. Louis Park, Minnesota) each potted goals for the Raiders, while Trevor Cosgrove (Exeter, New Hampshire) led the Raiders with a pair of assists to tie his career high.
 
Senior goaltender Bruce Racine (Bethesda, Maryland) made a career-high 34 saves in his second start of the season as he faced 38 shots. Fellow senior Mike Panowyk (Whitby, Ontario) tallied an assist for his 50th career point.
 
Ryan Lough gave the Saints a 1-0 lead just 19 seconds into the first period as he beat Racine with a shot top shelf on a breakaway up the left boards for the fastest goal the Raiders have allowed this season.
 
McAvoy evened the game at 1-1 with 3:02 to go in the opening stanza with his fourth goal of the season. Cosgrove started the breakout in the defensive zone and worked it up to Panowyk on the left wing. Panowyk skated into the left faceoff circle where he passed it to McAvoy, who beat a sliding Arthur Brey high, glove side.
 
The Saints regained the lead late in the second period as Alex Gilmour netted his first goal of the night with 3:20 to go. Just two seconds after an Evan Tschumi (Calgary, Alberta) penalty expired, Gilmour received a pass from behind the goal on the back door to beat Racine.
 
Colgate answered with 14:10 to go in the third period as Nick Austin buried his sixth goal of the season to tie the game, 2-2. Austin's initial shot went wide right and wrapped around the boards to Cosgrove at the left point. Cosgrove hit Austin with a point-to-point pass before he rifled the puck past Brey.
 
St. Lawrence took the lead for good in the third period en route to their victory as Nolan Gluchowski made it 3-2 Saints with 10:57 to go. Gluchowski snuck in behind the Raiders defense and beat Racine with a forehand-backhand move as he skated across the crease.
 
Later in the period, Gilmour won a battle in front of the crease off a Carson Gicewicz shot to put home a rebound for his second of the night before Mike Marnell put home an empty-netter with 8.9 seconds left.
 
BOTTOM LINE
St. Lawrence 5, Colgate 2
 
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Saints win for the third time in the last five games to improve to 7-20-2 (3-13-1 ECAC Hockey), while the Raiders fall to 12-13-4 (8-8-1 ECAC Hockey).
 
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Cosgrove led the team in points with a pair of assists for his second career two-point game, and second in the last three games
-Austin tallied his sixth goal of the season, the most by a freshman defenseman on the team since Jeremy Price during the 2009-10 season
-McAvoy put home his fourth goal of the season and his first since scoring at Dartmouth on Jan. 26
-Panowyk tallied his 50th career point with an assist on McAvoy's goal, good for his fifth assist of the season and 11th point
-Racine tallied a career-high 34 saves, besting his previous best of 32 last season at Merrimack
 
FACTS AND FIGURES
-St. Lawrence held a slight edge in shots, 39-35, despite Colgate's 17-5 advantage in the first period
-Both teams went 1 for 3 on the power play
-The Raiders barely lost the faceoff battle, 40-38, despite Adam Dauda's (Kitchener, Ontario) game-high 14 faceoff wins
 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
"We played really great early in the game. We had some great opportunities and we were making plays. It's been a problem of ours all year to finish on those and we hit a couple of posts on those opportunities.
 
"As the game went on, St. Lawrence started to get some momentum and we didn't have much of an answer for them in the third period. They really came after us hard. I'm disappointed that we didn't get some early that might have made it a little bit different.
 
"We need to find a way to manufacture some offense; that's what it really comes down to. We're working hard, we generated early, and when they don't go you put yourself in a position like we found ourselves in in the third period where the home team starts to play a little more desperate and they found a way to get a couple behind our goalie. That's the difference.
 
"We're a little inconsistent, which has a lot to do with being young. We've put ourselves in a position to be playing at home in the playoffs, and that is good for this young team. People had us picked to finish last in the league. We're still battling and we'll battle to the end and there's some hockey left to be played. Our goal is to play at home in the playoffs, and it's still there if we find a way to get some offense."
 
UP NEXT
The Raiders travel up Route 11 Saturday night to take on the No. 7/7 Clarkson Golden Knights with puck drop set for 7 p.m. at Cheel Arena.