MINNEAPOLIS —- Colgate may be a young team, but it gave everyone a glimpse of its full potential this weekend.
The Raiders beat No. 2 Ferris State, 3-0, Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the Mariucci Classic. Colgate tied Minnesota 2-2 last night and advanced to the championship game by beating the Gophers 2-1 in a shootout.
“We’re a young team that’s still trying to figure out who we are exactly,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. “I think a weekend like this can go a long way in giving our guys confidence and knowing that you can play with the best teams.”
The two teams played the first half of the game with no goals being scored, then Colgate struck twice before the second period concluded.
“We have so much respect for them,” Vaughan said. “We wanted to make sure that we had coverage at the net after initial shots. They’re a team that comes very hard, they’re so well coached, they’re consistent in their efforts every time they go over the boards and we knew we couldn’t let up for one second.”
Spiro Goulakos beat CJ Motte on a slap shot from the blue line on a power play with five minutes left in the second period and Mike McCann added another about three minutes later. Darcy Murphy added an insurance power-play goal halfway through the third.
“There was a great screen from Kyle Baun in front; I don’t think the goalie saw it,” Goulakos said of his goal. “It just went on net and went in.”
Goulakos, who is one of a handful of upper classmen on the Raiders’ squad, said he has seen growth in the team since the start of the season.
“The first half of the year was definitely a learning experience,” he said. “It’s been a steep learning curve for all of our underclassmen; they’ve done a great job of handling pressure and big minutes.”
Colgate netminder Charlie Finn, who was brilliant Friday night against Minnesota, wasn’t as busy on Saturday. The Bulldogs only managed 19 shots on goal.
“I thought we blocked more shots tonight than we did last night,” Vaughan said. “It was trying to keep them on the perimeter and making sure we had good net coverage after initial shots.
Even though Finn didn’t see a lot of shots, Vaughan was still quick to point out that he had a great game.
“Charlie made some key stops,” he said. “He made it look a little bit easy at times but he made a save in the third period when we were up by two, a great blocker save. If that goes in the momentum of this game could change.”
Colgate put 29 shots on frame and had 15 shots and two goals with the extra man on Saturday.
“The last week in practice we’ve worked on [the power play] and put in a lot of time,” Goulakos said. “Coming into this building, we knew we’d have more ice. We’re happy it paid off.”
Ferris State players and coaches were unavailable for comments after the game.
