RUTLAND, Vt. – Colby senior forward Wil Hartigan (Arlington, Mass.) potted the eventual game-winning goal at 17:07 of the third period to give the Mules a 5-3 victory over the Castleton State College men’s ice hockey team on Friday night at Spartan Arena in ECAC-East/NESCAC crossover action.
Colby improves to 2-3-0 overall and 1-2-0 in conference play. The Spartans drop their first contest of the season falling to 4-1-0 overall and 2-1-0 in conference action.
Late in the third, senior forward Karl Burns (Mequon, Wisc.) fired a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle and the rebound off of McNary’s right pad was driven home by Hartigan directly in front of the crease for his second goal of the season. Junior forward Dan Nelson (Northbrook, Ill.) tacked on an empty net goal at 19:46 of the period to secure the win.
Castleton opened up the scoring at 6:38 of the first period thanks to a tremendous individual effort from sophomore forward Dan Bell (Victoria, B.C.). On the penalty kill, Bell blocked a slapshot from the top of point, corralled the puck and raced past the defense creating a breakaway chance on Colby goaltender Cody McKinney (Weston, Fla.). All alone, Bell deked McKinney and stuffed the puck just over the goal line for an early 1-0 advantage.
In the second, Bell pushed the Spartans ahead 2-0 setting up teammate Cameron Granger (London, Ont.) from behind the net on a beautiful one-timer feed that Granger finished on for his first-collegiate goal at 5:06 of the period.
The Mules answered a few moments later (7:48) as junior defensemen Tom McGinn (St. Albans, Vt.) sniped home a pass from teammate Billy Crinnion (Smithtown, N.Y.), who was positioned behind the net, inside the right post past Castleton goaltender Seth McNary (Woburn, Mass.) for a 2-1 score.
Freshman forward Colin Murray (Oshawa, Ont.) netted his third marker of the season at 8:53 of the period lifting a shot over McKinney’s blocker side to give the Spartans another two goal advantage, 3-1.
Colby scored two goals just two minutes and two seconds apart to close out the period and tie the contest.
On the power play, freshman defensemen Nick Trepp (Greenwich, Conn.) scored his first-collegiate goal at 14:01 one-timing home a pass from teammate Cory McGrath (Yarmouthport, Mass.) by McNary.
Scott Harff (Watertown, N.Y.) picked up his second tally of the season at 16:03 driving home a nice feed from teammate Nick Kondiles (Lake Forest, Ill.) from behind the net past McNary for a 3-3 score.
McKinney made 30 saves to improve his record to 2-1-0 while McNary turned away 20 shots.
The Spartans return to action tomorrow as they host No. 4 USCHO NCAA Division III nationally ranked opponent, Bowdoin, at 4:00 p.m. Castleton is currently ranked 14th in the USCHO poll.
No comments:
Post a Comment