BRUNSWICK, Maine – The Colby College men's ice hockey team stunned Bowdoin with four unanswered goals in a 4-3 victory at Watson Arena on Saturday evening. The Mules, who tallied three goals in the final 6:30, improve to 2-4-0 this season while the Polar Bears fall to 3-2-1.
Mike Doherty scored the game-winner for Colby with 1:11 remaining and earned the Peter Schuh Memorial Award Winner as the MVP of the Bowdoin-Colby game for his efforts. John McGinnis scored twice in the loss for Bowdoin.
Great hustle down ice resulted in Bowdoin's first goal. Jordan Lalor beat a Colby player down ice to prevent an icing call and fed McGinnis in front, who swatted the puck through the pads of Matt Delaney 8:03 into the opening frame. Less than 90 seconds later, a Colby turnover in their defensive zone came to the stick of Colin Downey, who fed Harry Matheson on the far post for a backhander at 9:32.
Shorthanded late in the second frame, Bowdoin was able to increase its lead with a neutral-zone faceoff win by Colin Downey to McGinnis. The first-year skated through two Colby defenders and slipped a low shot inside the right post to make it 3-0 Polar Bears at 14:38. The Mules were able to answer moments later, as Cory McGrath found Spike Smigelski racing down the right side of the ice. Smigelski wristed a shot that snuck through Bowdoin netminder Steve Messina at 16:14 to give the Mules a key burst heading into the final frame.
After killing off a Bowdoin 5x3 power play early in the third, Colby started its comeback with 6:30 remaining, as Ben Chwick finished off a rebound in front to close the gap to 3-2. Colby evened the score with just 3:42 left as Nick Kondiles dug out the puck in the corner and found Nick Lanza on the right faceoff circle. Lanza snapped a quick shot inside the left post to even the score at three apiece.
Doherty finished off the stunning comeback with 1:11 remaining, taking possession of the puck on the right boards, skating in on Messina and backhanding a shot inside the left post to give the Mules their first lead of the weekend.
Messina made 31 saves for Bowdoin while Delaney stopped 29 for Colby. In a cleanly-played contest, both teams went 0-3 on the powerplay.
The win snaps a five-game losing streak for the Mules against their Brunswick rivals as they earn their first victory over Bowdoin since December of 2009. Saturday's contest was the 198th meeting between the schools. The Polar Bears hold a 103-87-8 edge in the all-time series following this year's home-and-home.
