Box Score
 
HAMILTON, N.Y. – Colgate scored four unanswered goals in the final 16 minutes of Saturday's game to erase a two-goal deficit and finish a weekend sweep of the #6/9 Cornell men's hockey team with a 5-3 victory at Starr Rink.
 
Cornell (11-6-4, 8-3-3 ECAC Hockey) got on the board first with junior Braden Birch's first goal of the season. The stay-at-home defenseman whistled a shot from the center point through traffic and over the blocker of Colgate goalie Eric Mihalik at the 7:32 mark. The goal was a culmination of a great shift from junior forward Greg Miller's line. Wingers Brian Ferlin and Dustin Mowrey worked the puck back to the point to draw the assists.
 
Colgate (14-9-3, 8-5-1) evened the score a little more than three minutes later on Austin Smith's goal. Joe Wilson's pass to Chis Wagner gained the Cornell zone for the Raiders, then Wagner dished off to Smith and drove to the net. Smith pulled up and sent a shot toward goal that squeezed between the catching glove and body of sophomore goalie Andy Iles.
 
But the Big Red entered the first intermission with the lead thanks to Miller's seventh goal of the season. With 3:43 left before the break, Miller hit Wilson on the right-wing halfwall to help create a turnover. Mowrey flagged down the puck at the blue line and chipped it into the right circle, where Miller was able to flag it down with his glove and drop it to his stick as he approached the slot. He beat Mihalik to the glove side and gave the Big Red a 2-1 lead.
 
The Raiders threatened at the 12:00 mark of the second period when Smith speeded away on a two-on-one up the left wing with Wagner cutting down the middle, but Big Red defenseman Nick D'Agostino broke up the attempted pass.
 
That set the stage for Cornell to expand its lead to two goals. Senior forward Sean Collins blasted a shot from the right circle past Mihalik on the power play with 4:05 remaining before the intermission for his seventh goal of the season. Freshman forward Joel Lowry and senior defenseman Sean Whitney drew the assists.
 
Colgate had its first power play at the 18:10 mark, but the Big Red killed it off with Lowry's thundering check on Robbie Bourdon with 10 seconds left before the intermission acting as the punctuation.
 
The Raiders started to turn the tide with Wilson's goal on a semi-breakaway 4:39 into the final frame on a busted breakout. Smith evened the score with his nation-leading 26th goal of the season less than two minutes later. It was Colgate's 10th shorthanded goal of the season, and second in as many nights.
 
Colgate then took the lead on the power play with 5:06 remaining when Bourdon finished off a pretty passing play from Wagner and Spiro Goulakos. Thomas Larkin's 200-foot empty-netter sealed the game in the final minute.
 
The Big Red continues its three-game stretch away from home next weekend with a swing through New York's Capital District. Cornell will be back on national television at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3 when its visit to Rensselaer appears on NBC Sports Network, then the Big Red battles Union the following night.
 
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