Posted: Nov 30, 2013
Colin Downey (East Sandwich, Mass.) scored a pair of goals and teammate Gabriel Renaud (Quebec City, Quebec) had one goal and an assist as Bowdoin College took a 5-0 win over Suffolk University on the first day of the Bowdoin/Colby Face-Off Classic at Colby College on Saturday.
The Polar Bears (3-2-1 overall) will host the second day of action and will entertain University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth at 4 p.m. Sunday. Suffolk will take on Colby in the first game at 1 p.m.
Bowdoin dominated the opening 10 minutes of the first period, securing a 9-1 shot advantage. The Polar Bears made it 1-0 with 10:04 to play when Renaud came in on the left side and ripped a shot from near the top of the left circle for the lone score of the first period.
Matt Rubinoff (Oakville, Ontario) scored at 7:17 of the second period when he deflected in a shot from the point by Jay Kourkoulis (Saint-Laurent, Quebec). Kendall Culbertson (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) also had an assist on the play.
Downey gave the Polar Bears a 3-0 margin at 13:41 on a transition goal. Downey took a feed from Mitch Barrington (Cambridge, Ontario), skated in on goal, and lifted a high shot to the right corner. Harry Matheson (Kingston, Ontario) also had an assist.
Downey made it 4-0 at 15:37 of the third period when he took a pass from Barrington on the right side and ripped a shot that goalie Brandon Smolarek (Chesterfield, Mo.) was able to deflect. However, the puck went directly to Downey on the right post and he knocked the puck in.
The Polar Bears closed out the scoring just 17 seconds later on another transition goal. Connor Quinn (Sudbury, Mass.) took a pass from Tim Coffey (Cumberland, R.I.), broke in toward the left post, and was able to squeeze in a shot past Smolarek.
Bowdoin goalie Steve Messina (Newton, N.J.) earned his 35th career victory and his fourth career shutout with 22 saves.
Smolarek stopped 36 shots in 55 minutes, 54 seconds. Mitch Collum (Lake Placid, N.Y.) went the rest of the way and did not make a stop.
(Story courtesy of Bowdoin College Sports Information)