For two consecutive nights, Quinnipiac freshman Kelly Babstock scored a spectacular shorthanded goal. But only the one on the second night turned out to help the team.
On Friday night, Babstock scored a shorthanded goal to put the ‘Cats up, 2-0, over Clarkson. They’d go on to blow the 2-0 third-period lead and lose 3-2 in overtime.
Babstock’s shorty with 4:05 left in the second period put the Bobcats up, 2-1, and was the second of four unanswered Bobcat goals Saturday in a 4-1 victory over St. Lawrence at the TD Bank Sports Center.
Saturday’s goal was the turning point of the game.
“To be shorthanded and to be in a tie game and to come out of the penalty up 2-1, that was obviously instrumental in the victory,” Quinnipiac head coach Rick Seeley said.
It was Babstock’s 22nd goal of the season, which leads ECAC Hockey.
Sophomore forward Brittany Lyons got the eventual game winner, her eighth goal of the season, to make it 3-1 8:01 into the third period.
Lyons took a shot from the left circle with junior forward Kate Wheeler screening in front of the net. The goal was originally given to Wheeler, but after the game the scorekeeper gave the goal to Lyons, after Wheeler said she never touched the pucked.
Wheeler, a former linemate of Babstock, got her goal just 1:34 later, putting the Bobcats up 4-1 on her 11th goal of the season.
“The first half of the season I was playing with Babstock and she really worked hard and set me up a few times,” Wheeler said. “I give a lot of credit to her. Now, I’m just going to the net and shooting the puck, which has helped me out a lot.”
St. Lawrence got on the board first in the game on an unassisted Mel Desrochers goal just 3:22 into the first period.
Quinnipiac’s junior defender Melissa Perry tied it up 6:11 into the second period. Both junior defender Jordan Elkins and senior forward Kelley Davies picked up two assists apiece in the game.
St. Lawrence pulled the goalie for good with the start of a power play with 7:27 left in the game, but would get nothing more than a Karell Emard goal to make it 4-2 with 1:10 left.
“Quinnipiac did a good job of boxing pucks out,” St. Lawrence head coach Chris Wells said. “We weren’t able to get a lot of pucks to the net.
“We made a key mistake on the power play. You sit there thinking that you might be going up 2-1, but the human highlight real makes it 2-1.”
Quinnipiac sophomore goalie Victoria Vigilanti made 21 saves, only five in the third period to get the win.
St. Lawrence’s Caitlyn Lahonen made 23 saves in the losing effort.
The Bobcats now sit in fourth place in the ECAC standings. This weekend they will play at Dartmouth and at Harvard, who sit in third and second, respectively. The top eight teams make the playoffs, with the top four receiving home ice advantage.
Photo credit: Zach Abrams
