Despite being outshot 51-12, Colgate stunned No. 3 St. Lawrence 3-0 on Saturday behind Brook Wheeler’s shutout. All Raider goals were scored shorthanded, good for a team record.
Colgate (9-9-4, 6-4-2 ECACHL) righted itself after going just 1-5-2 in its previous nine games. The defeat for St. Lawrence (18-3-2, 8-2-2) tightened up the league standings – there are now five teams with win percentages between 72.7 and 75 in league play.
The difference in the game was St. Lawrence’s failure to protect the puck while going 0-for-8 on the power play. Wheeler’s 51-saves were a new career high.
“We stepped up our game from last night and we challenged them,” said Colgate coach Scott Wiley. “Our team played extremely smart today. We were very opportunistic and gave up very few second chances. It was a great win for our program.”
The Raiders netted the game’s first goal at 8:31 of the first period when a bad bounce gave them a two-on-one. Sam Hunt was on the receiving end of an Elin Brown pass, and the Raider freshman made a move around Moffat for the 1-0 lead. Colgate had another great short-handed opportunity with just 1:18 remaining when senior Allison Paiano skated in alone but had her shot squashed by Saints goalie Jess Moffat.
Colgate extended its lead to 2-0 when senior Becky Irvine beat a Saints skater to a loose puck, and using outstanding speed, closed in on Moffat one-on-one. She drew the puck to her forehand across the crease and slipped the puck between Moffat’s pads.
St. Lawrence had a short-handed opportunity of its own with just over one minute to play in the middle frame. Freshman Alison Domenico connected at the blue line but pushed the puck ahead of her a little too far and Wheeler got to it first.
Brown added Colgate’s third goal when she stole the puck from St. Lawrence’s Abbie Bullard down in the left circle and ripped a shot off. The puck rebounded off the pads of Moffat back to Brown’s stick where she tucked in her own rebound just under the crossbar at 8:25 for the Raiders’ third short-handed goal of the contest.
The Saints finished an eight-game homestand just 6-2, with both defeats coming against unranked teams, after losing just one game during a brutal travel schedule during the 2005 portion of the season.
The Colgate win was reminiscent of a Saints-Raiders playoff matchup two seasons ago, when the Raiders won 1-0 behind a Rebecca Lahar shutout despite being outshout 50-18.
The Raiders are back in action next weekend when they visit the Yale-Brown travel pairing. The Saints will be visiting Niagara.
