This weekend, the Colgate Raiders of the Eastern College Athletic Conference traveled to Storrs to take on the UConn men’s ice hockey team in a two-game opening weekend series at the Toscano Ice Forum. The first game of the series took place on Friday at 7:30 p.m., followed by the second game on Saturday at the same time.
In game one of the series, the Huskies defeated the Colgate Raiders in their home opener by a score of 4-2. The Huskies dominated the Raiders right from the get-go. Avon, Conn. native Jake Percival took advantage of a scoring opportunity to net the first goal of the season for the Huskies. However, the Huskies didn’t hold this lead for too long as Colgate’s Ryan Spinale was able to knot the score up at 1-1.
The Huskies regained their lead in the second period when Oliver Flynn found the back of the net to take a 2-1 lead. Shortly after, freshman Ethan Gardula lit the lamp for the first time in his career to boost the Huskies’ lead to 3-1 going into the third period.
To start the final period, Jake Richard was able to net his first goal of the season, assisted by Kai Janviriya, to extend the Huskies’ commanding lead to 4-1. With little time left in the game, Colgate showed some life with Antonio Fernandez scoring a goal to cut the deficit to 4-2. However, the Raiders could not complete the comeback, making the Huskies victorious in game one.
In game two, the Huskies completed the opening weekend sweep over Colgate, defeating the Raiders by a score of 6-2.
Late in the first period, Colgate snatched a 1-0 lead with a goal from Simone Dadiè, assisted by Niko Rexine. Things were looking promising for the Raiders; however, it was all Huskies from there on out.
Between the second and third periods of the match, the Huskies proceeded to score five unanswered goals from four different people. Tabor Heaslip started things off for the Huskies by netting the first goal of the game, followed by goals from Jake Richard and Jake Percival to grow the Huskies’ lead to 3-1. In the third period, Kaden Shahan found the back of the net to build the lead to 4-1. Thirty seconds later, Percival netted his second goal of the game, giving the Huskies a convincing 5-1 lead late in the game.
Colgate’s Nic Belpedio attempted to keep things close, scoring a goal to cut the Raiders’ deficit to three. This deficit turned out to be short-lived after Canadian junior Ryan Tattle put the puck in the net to increase the Huskies’ lead, ultimately helping the Huskies win the contest by a score of 6-2.
UConn will look to build off this momentum next week in another two-game weekend series against the College of the Holy Cross. Game one will be played up the road in Worcester, Mass. and game two will be played on Friday at home at the XL Center.