LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – An up-and-down regular season left questions for Colgate as it entered the ECAC Hockey tournament as the No. 5 seed, but any misnomers were put to bed Friday night as the Raiders sunk top-seeded Quinnipiac 2-1 in double overtime at the Herb Brooks Arena.
Ross Mitton played hero for Colgate in the game’s 89th minute, cleaning up a rebound on a shot from Alex Dipaolo.
“I’m still in shock right now,” Mitton said. “I actually can’t believe it. I’m super excited to see who’s coming tomorrow.”
Mitton’s shot was the 46th of the night on Bobcats goaltender Yaniv Perets, who made a career-high 44 saves in the losing effort.
On the other end of the ice, Raiders netminder Carter Gylander made 40 saves to keep his team’s season alive. That total was one short of his season high, which also came against Quinnipiac in November.
“Carter was dialed in from the get-go tonight, he made a couple of huge stops early in the game,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. “He just settled right in and saw the puck really well.
A free flowing and offensively heavy opening period translated onto the scoreboard with just over three minutes to play.
A Quinnipiac turnover at its own blue line sprung Daniel Panetta on a one-on-one chance with Perets. Panetta converted on his opportunity and slid the puck five-hole on Perets to give Colgate a 1-0 lead.
“No matter the team you’re playing, No. 1 seed or not, you’re going to want a great forecheck and that’s the mentality we had going into the night,” Panetta said. “We stuck to our game plan the whole time. Levi (Glasman) had a great forecheck and it gave us the first goal.”
That lead would remain until the third period, but not without a lack of chances.
Quinnipiac’s Skyler Brind’Amour received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for a knee-on-knee hit on Colgate’s Colton Young midway through the second period, giving the Raiders a chance to extend their lead.
However, stout defending from Quinnipiac, including several key blocks from Desi Burgart, allowed the Bobcats to kill off the major and attempt to swing the momentum in their favor.
Burgart was one of the few players Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold praised postgame.
“I thought Victor (Czerneckianair) and Desi were probably our two best forwards,” Pecknold said. “We just lost our way tonight. We didn’t do a lot of things. It was a struggle.”
After several power plays of their own, the Bobcats finally found the equalizer. A trickling shot from Ethan de Jong redirected off the post and the back of Gylander’s leg pad before crossing the goal line four minutes into the final frame.
The next 45 minutes passed scoreless, as neither side could find a winner in the third or the first overtime, stifled by the phenomenal play of Gylander and Perets until Mitton struck gold in the fifth period.
“We played our best game of the year, I don’t think there is any question about that,” Vaughan said. “We knew we were going to have to do that against that team … if you don’t enjoy a college hockey game like that, you need to take up chess or checkers or something else.”
Colgate advances to its first ECAC Hockey championship game since 2015, where it fell to Harvard. If the Raiders claim the Whitelaw Cup Saturday, it will be their first conference title since 1990. They’ll play the winner of the second semifinal game between No. 2 Harvard and No. 3 Cornell, which is still ongoing. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.
Quinnipiac will look to regroup as it sets its sights on the opening round of the NCAA tournament this coming weekend. The Bobcats enter the regional round once again as an at-large bid after coming up short in the ECAC Hockey tournament for the seventh straight season.
“It’s probably our worst game of the year,” Pecknold said. “It’s the wrong time to do it, but it happens.”
