The Colgate Raiders were victorious in the opening game of the Three Rivers Hockey Classic. They were able to beat the Western Michigan Broncos 2-1 to advance to Tuesday night’s championship game.
Senior captain Spiro Goulakos of the Raiders scored with 2:38 left in the second period to put his team in the lead 1-0.
Tim Harrison scored his 4th goal of the season for the Raiders with 8:45 left in the 3rd period. Brendan Corcoran and Andrew Black assisted on the goal.
“Great play by my linemates Derek Freeman and Andrew Black,” said Harrison. “Andrew came down the left side as a couple defensemen, I found myself alone in the slot, gave it up hit the post, and popped up for me and I missed the first one, so I had to redeem myself.” said Harrison
Western Michigan didn’t back down as Aidan Muir scored with 5:30 left in the third, his second of the season. Assists were from Justin Kovacs and Taylor Fleming.
“They did a really good job, when they started stretching at the end,” said Colgate coach Don Vaughan. “It’s hard to defend. Your defenseman’s gap gets busted and we tried to get numbers back. We bent a little bit in the end when we had a break, that was kind of the message on the bench to continue to try push the pucks to the outside.”
“I’m obviously very disappointed in losing the hockey game,” said Western Michigan coach Andy Murray. “We are very disappointed, Colgate obviously is a good team. We had some players that were a little bit selfish, and I say selfish, when you got a chance to shoot the puck and you don’t shoot it, you pass it.” said Murray.
Charlie Finn made 28 saves to earn the win for the Raiders, while Lukas Hafner made 25 stops for the Broncos.
Western Michigan forward Colton Hargove was ejected from the game and received a five-minute major penalty for a check to the head of Colgate defenseman Kevin Lough.
Both teams will play again tomorrow, with Western Michigan facing the loser of the other semifinal between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Robert Morris Colonials at 4:30 and Colgate will face the winner in the championship at 7:30.
Photo credit: ECAC
