SEEEE YA COLGATE - Union wins 6-3

Adam Presizniuk scored twice

Well my luck at Turningstone didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I still had a great time. Toby Keith and Eric Church rocked the place like I had never seen before, but of course as I was gettin' rowdy at the show, I kept checking my phone for Union hockey updates to see how we were doing against Colgate. I was very surprised and a bit nervous when I saw that we fell down 2-0 early but yet I was confident we would storm back. I had seen this all before in person at Princeton so I knew the boys in white had it in them.

Colgate would jump out to an early 1-0 lead when senior forward Brian Day beat Kinkaid with a low wrist shot at 10:09 of the first period. The Raiders would tack on another goal when sophomore defensemen Thomas Larkin would score on the power-play after a Professor Boileau clipping penalty.

Trailing 12-3 in shots and 2-0 on the scoreboard entering the second period, the Dutchmen score five unanswered, starting with Presizniuk’s first goal of the night. Freshman forward Matt Hatch cut into the zone and fired a shot on Colgate goaltender Eric Mihalik. Mihalik made the initial stop, but Presizniuk was there for the rebound at 6:10.

Union tied the game at 2-2 on an impressive individual effort by senior forward John Simpson. An extended period in the Colgate zone, allowed Union to change forward lines. With fresh legs on the ice, senior forward Stephane Boileau fed Simpson the puck, who jammed in his own rebound at 14:48.

With the game tied in the third period, junior forward Kelly Zajac found Presizniuk cutting into the zone for a breakaway. Presizniuk fired a shot between Mihalik’s pads that trickled over the goal line for a 3-2 Union lead at 6:15 of the third period.

Freshman forward Daniel Carr extended Union’s lead to 4-2 just 16 seconds later, redirecting a feed from freshman forward Josh Jooris at 6:31. Jooris would score one of his own on the power play at 10:01, firing a long rebound into an empty net off a shot from the point from sophomore forward Jeremy Welsh.

Colgate’s Kevin McNamara would score at 17:38 to cut Union’s lead to 5-3, but the Dutchmen would seal the game with an empty net goal from sophomore Wayne Simpson at 18:48.

Union finished the night 1-for-2 on the power play and 2-of-3 on the penalty kill, while outshooting the Raiders 36-27. Kinkaid (21-7-1) made 24 stops for his 21st win of the season.

The win was Union’s seventh in a row, tying a school record in the Division I era, set in January 2008. The Dutchmen also set a new school record for overall wins in the Division I era. They are also very close to securing a first round bye in the ECAC playoffs (I think the Magic Number is 1). The team will travel to the North Country next weekend to take on Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

Oh yeah, and those losers from Cornell defeated #8 RPI in overtime 3-2. Always great to see RPI take the dive! With two overtime losses suffered by RPI this past weekend, I expect us to move up to the #8 spot in the national polls. We will find out tomorrow afternoon so check in with us then!

Great weekend in Union hockey!! For more info on last night's 6-3 win over Colgate, please visit the links below:

Union Athletics
Ken Schott's Blog
Dan's USCHO Report
Times Union
Colgate Athletics

Thanks for reading!
-JZolot

CONTINUED...
Hey readers, it's Dan. I hope you're all enjoying Justin's posts. I think they're awesome and are a nice change of pace from my writing.

Anyways, just wanted to share some things about my experience from last night's game.

Once the Dutchmen went down 2-0 after the first period some people were nervous. I was not nervous and neither was team manager Phil Cohn. He texted me after the period saying that he expected Union to come back because the team responds well to bad periods. He was right!

Some of the biggest news of the evening came during a verbal altercation between the ECAC's director of officiating Paul Stewart and CHN's Jason Klump. It happened in the first period in the press box. Klump attended the RPI game and I guess said something that upset Stewart. When the two saw each other again at Messa Rink things got wore. I can't officially say what was said since I was trying to stay out the argument since it wasn't my business. Klump has been tweeting about the event all last night and today, and should have a story about it up on Without A Peer sometime soon.

Also, special thanks to Jeff Weinstein and Ken Schott for letting me use their voice recorders after the game for my USCHO recap after mine broke.

Check out some other interesting links I found:

Coach Leaman talks to TU's Mark McGuire about preparing for a weekend, and how more importance is placed on the Friday night game. (Times Union)

Check out what the probability is for each ECAC team winning the league championship. Union is currently at 24%. (Playoff Status.com)

See what the Magic Number for each ECAC team is. (ECAC Playoff Possibilities Script)

Here's a video from Union's third goal last night: