TROY, N.Y. — Colgate fell 5-3 to RPI Friday after it fell behind in the third and was unable to complete a comeback.
A high-scoring third period saw the Engineer's score four goals. Colgate pulled back within one thanks to a goal from
Anthony Stark but the Raiders were unable to complete the comeback, giving up an empty net goal.
In the first,
Alex DiPaolo got Colgate on the board when he scored with twelve and a half minutes remaining to put the Raiders up 1-0.
Nic Belpedio fired a shot that hit off the boards and got picked up by
Matt Verboon, who started to skate behind the net before turning around and dishing a pass to DiPaolo for a shot he fired in from close range.
With three minutes remaining in the first, the Engineers went on the game's first power play after Belpedio got sent to the box for hooking. RPI quickly took advantage of the man-up opportunity, scoring an equalizing goal 19 seconds into the power play. Max Smolinksi ripped a shot in off passes from Austin Heidemann and Kyle Hallbauer.
Despite giving up the goal,
Carter Gylander had a solid first period, making 13 saves. He finished with 28 saves in net.
Ethan Manderville put Colgate ahead when he scored a power play goal with 12 minutes remaining in the second.
Nick Anderson hit a pass to
Alex Young, who took a shot from the right faceoff circle that bounced off the goalie's pads to Manderville. The senior tapped a shot in off the rebound to put the Raiders ahead 2-1.
Colgate also had another power play opportunity later in the second, but they could not capitalize.
Just over two minutes into the third, Rensselaer tied it up with a goal from Jakob Lee. Heidemann then scored back-to-back goals to extend RPI's lead to two at 4-2.
Stark pushed it back to a one-goal game when he netted his first career goal with nine minutes left. Off a faceoff win by
Ryan McGuire, Stark fired a shot from the right side of the ice that flew past the Engineers' goalie to make it 4-3.
The Raiders pulled their goalie in the final minute and a half of the game and had numerous chances to score, including a shot by Verboon that hit off the post.
RPI topped off the scoring with an empty net goal with 52 seconds remaining.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Don Vaughan
"Just a disappointing night all around. We lost our focus. We spend a lot of our preparation on attention to detail and good habits. Some of our breakdowns tonight that ended with the puck in our net were a direct result of a lack of detail and these are things we work on every day. Give RPI credit. They stayed with it and did a good job in the third. We cheated the game tonight and got what we deserved. We will need to be much better tomorrow."
UP NEXT
The Raiders take the short trip to Schenectady Saturday to take on Union College. Puck drop is slated for 4 p.m.
