STORRS, Conn. - The Huskies scored first on a goal by Ryan Ginand but Colgate scored the final three goals of the game to take a 5-2 victory from the Huskies in the first game of the 2006 Toyota UConn Hockey Classic in Storrs, Conn. Senior Yale Lewis also scored and goalie Brad Thiessen made 34 saves in the game. The Huskies will face either Connecticut or Holy Cross on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The Huskies got on the board first when Steve Birnstill took the puck up ice and made a centering pass to Joe Vitale, who got a shot on Colgate goalie Mark Dekanich. Dekanich made the save but Ginand was right there to pot the rebound, his second goal of the season at 14:12 in the first period.

Colgate then proceeded to get five-straight power plays before the first period was over and took a 2-1 lead out of the first. On the Raiders' first goal, Marc Fulton scored off a pass from Tyler Burton on a 5-on-3 power play at 16:25. With just seven seconds remaining in the period, Nick St. Pierre shot the puck through the Husky defense on a power play with an assist from Jason Williams at 19:53. Thiessen made 15 saves, including nine on the power play, in the first period.

The Huskies tied it up at 2-2 on a power play to start the scoring in the second period. With Colgate's Fulton in the penalty box for hooking, the Huskies cycled the puck on the outside. David Strathman passed the puck to Jimmy Russo, who passed it to Lewis. Lewis shot the puck from the right circle into the upper-right corner of the net over Dekanich's glove at 2:44 in the second period. It was Lewis's first goal of the season.

Colgate fired back with goals from St. Pierre and Burton at 3:41 and 7:45 to take a 4-2 lead. St. Pierre's goal came at even strength with assists from Dustin Gillanders and Jesse Winchester. Burton's goal was an unassisted, short-handed goal as he intercepted a pass up the ice from Thiessen and took it in for a breakaway and scored.

Northeastern came out strong in the third period and outshot the Raiders, 17-8, in the period but couldn't find the back of the net. Burton scored again at 11:05 in the third period to ice it for the Raiders.

Northeastern fell to 4-10-2 overall while Colgate improved to 8-10-2.

Northeastern takes on either Connecticut or Holy Cross in the second round of the UConn Hockey Classic on Saturday depending which wins the late game on Friday. The Huskies are 2-0-0 all-time against Connecticut and 3-1-0 all-time against Holy Cross, which are both members of the Atlantic Hockey Association. The game will be broadcast on 890 ESPN Boston and WRBB Radio, 104.9 FM.