HAMILTON – The No. 4/4 Colgate women’s ice hockey team scored a pair of third period goals to come back from a two-goal deficit but No. 10/9 Robert Morris answered with a late goal in a 3-3 overtime tie at Class of 1965 Arena.
Saturday’s result marks the first Raiders tie of the 2017-18 season after a pair of 4-3 overtime victories earlier in the year.
Goaltender Julia Vandyk (Cambridge, Ontario) set a career-high with her 37-save performance while Jessie Eldridge (Barrie, O32362ntario) led the Raiders in points with a pair of assists.
Malia Schneider (Millarville, Alberta) and Livia Altmann (Arosa, Switzerland) tallied goals within 2:57 of each other early in the third period to cap a string of three straight goals for the Raiders in overcoming the early deficit.
Trailing 2-1, the Raiders scored the first two goals of the third period to take their initial lead of the game. Altmann tied the game 2:20 into the first period with her second goal of the season. Shelby Perry (Elginburg, Ontario) turned from the right corner to find Annika Zalewski (New Hartford, New York) up the right wing. Zalewski found Altmann sneaking in behind the Colonials defense and fired the puck off the left post and into the net.
Schneider gave the Raiders a 3-2 lead just under three minutes later on her ninth goal of the season. Robert Morris tried to wrap the puck around the boards in their offensive zone but Eldridge cut off the puck and fired a home run pass to Schneider as she hit the opposite blue line. Schneider hesitated before roofing the shot past Robert Morris goaltender Elijah Milne-Price’s glove.
Vandyk continued to turn away Robert Morris scoring opportunities before the Colonials tied the game with 5:46 to play in the third period as Natalie Fraser snuck home a laser from the point past Vandyk’s outstretched right pad.
The Colonials opened up the scoring with 3:39 to go in the first period as Lexi Templeman put home a backhanded pass from Amber Rennie across the crease to take a 1-0 lead. Jaycee Gebhard doubled their margin with 10:21 left in the second period after taking the puck from the defensive zone and beating Vandyk on a shorthanded breakaway.
Olivia Zafuto (Niagara Falls, New York) answered Gebh-32363ard’s goal 30 seconds later on the power play to cut the Colonial lead in half. Eldridge passed the puck from the right point to Breanne Wilson-Bennett (Markham, Ontario) on the right wing, where she fed the puck back to Zafuto at the point. Zafuto skated into the slot and fired the puck through traffic past a great screen by Bailey Larson (Sycamore, Illinois).
Zafuto’s goal kicked off Colgate’s stretch of three straight goals to take the lead before Robert Morris tallied its late goal to force the tie.
BOTTOM LINE
No. 4/4 Colgate 3, No. 10/9 Robert Morris 3 (OT)
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders wrap up the first half of the season with a 15-3-1 record while the Colonials improve to 11-3-3 on the season
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Vandyk surpassed her previous career-high for saves in a game with 37 on Saturday
-Schneider’s goal for the Raiders was her ninth of the season, tied with Eldridge for second-most on the team
-Altmann tallied her second goal of the season and first since Oct. 7 to give her two goals and two assists this season
-Zafuto also scored for the Raiders, her third goal of the season and second in as many weekends
-Saturday marks the first time two defenders scored in the same game since Nov. 1, 2016, when Lauren Wildfang (Waterdown, Ontario) and Cat Quirion ’17 each scored in a 2-1 win against Cornell
-Eldridge’s two-assist game was her third multi-assist game of the season and fifth multi-point outing
-Eldridge now has 25 multi-point games in her career and is tied with Shae Labbe (Calgary, Alberta) for the team lead with 19 points
-Perry tied Wildfang for the most assists on the team with her 14th of the season and is third on the team with 17 points
-Perry’s assist was also the 70th point of her career to give the Raiders seven players with 70 career points
-Wilson-Bennett recorded her 15th point of the season on her ninth assist and has 75 points in her career
-Zalewski also recorded her ninth assist of the season and 13th point while her assist also goes down as the 40th of her career
FACTS AND FIGURES
-The Raiders were outshot for just the third time this season, 40-32, but held a 6-3 edge in the overtime period
-Both teams went 1 for 6 on the power play Saturday evening
-Robert Morris had a 40-27 advantage in faceoffs, led by Brittany Howard’s 22 for 37 performance. Wilson-Bennett won a team-high 11 faceoffs for the Raiders
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Greg Fargo
“It was a really good start in the third period. To score early there and get the go-ahead goal by Malia shortly after was huge. After the first period, we got a little bit better in the second and then early on in the third. For one reason or another we kind of let our foot off the gas in the third and didn’t make a few plays defensively we needed to.”
“We’ve made some big strides in the first half in terms of how our game has come together. Going into break with time to reflect, a game like tonight’s is a good realization that we’re not a finished product by any means. We still have lots of room to grow. I love the group that we have in the locker room. I can’t wait to get back to work with them and finish off the year the right way.”
UP NEXT
The No. 4/4 Raiders are off for the next few weeks before returning to the ice Jan. 5 at the Frank Perrotti, Jr. Arena against the Quinnipiac Bobcats with puck drop set for 6 p.m.
