Sophomore left wing Jon Smyth recorded a career-high four goals and to lead Colgate to a 6-1 victory over Clarkson before 2,609 fans at Cheel Arena Saturday night. The Raiders, who snapped an eight-game winless stretch (0-7-1) against the Golden Knights, improved their record to 4-3-1 overall and to 2-2 in the ECAC. Clarkson drops to 4-3-3 overall and to 1-2-1 in the conference.
After suffering back-to-back shutout losses to the Knights last season, Colgate finally broke the drought against Clarkson at 13:38 of the first period. Junior Dmitry Yashin connected on a 5-on-3 power play at the top of the crease to give the Raiders their first goal against the Knights in a span of 144:52.
Clarkson got into early penalty trouble to start the second putting Colgate on three straight power plays and the Raiders capitalized when Jon Smyth tallied at 6:16 to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. Smyth scored his second of the game at 12:30 when he took a pass in the slot from junior Darryl McKinnon and fired in his fourth goal of the year, which chased Clarkson starter, sophomore Dustin Traylen out of the game. Colgate made it 4-0 on senior Kyle Doyle’s fourth goal of the season with 2:59 remaining in the middle frame.
Smyth closed out the first hat trick by a Colgate player in two years at 3:48 of the third period and then added a shorthanded marker at 15:28 for his sixth goal of the season to round out the most productive game of his career.
Clarkson’s Rob McFeeters scored a power-play goal at 16:11 to spoil Raider goaltender David Cann’s bid to become the first Colgate goaltender to ever shut out the Knights. Cann finished with 36 saves as Clarkson outshot Colgate 37-33. The Raiders were 2-of-9 on the power play, while the Knights were 1-of-5 with the man-advantage.
