“That was long overdue,” Bouharevich said. “I knew there was little time left and (Ben) Arnt made a great pass, a nice chip. He stretched the two defenders, brought the both of them to him and I had a wide-open shot. I knew there was no time and so I didn’t want to carry it, I just teed it up and went top shelf on him. That was a big goal, and a big win for this team and this program. We’ve been looking for a good league win.”
“It’s great to see him get his first one, he works so hard and he’s deserving,” senior captain Scott Zurevisnki said of Yuri Bouharevich’s game winning goal. “That’s the kind of break our team needed. Like I said before, it’s a great finish for us.”
Senior captain Scott Zurevinski led the Bobcats (9-6-3, 2-4-3 ECAC) with a goal and an assist. Zach Tolkinen also played well, chipping in with two assists.
Jacob Laliberte and Zach Schroeder paced the Engineers (3-12-0, 1-6-0 ECAC), as they each registered a goal. Brock Higgs led RPI with two assists.
With less the ten seconds remaining in regulation Tolkinen fed a pass to Arnt skating across the neutral zone. Arnt skated into the offensive zone and found Bouharevich on the left wing with an RPI defender in front of him. Arnt sent a pass to a Bouharevich, who blasted a rocket past the blocker of RPI’s goaltender Scott Diebold.
The Bobcats took a 1-0 lead on freshman Matthew Peca’s fourth goal of the season. After the initial shot was blocked in front, the bouncing puck found defender Danny Federico at the blue line who rifled a shot on net. Federico’s shot found the stick of Zurevinski in front of the crease and then trickled to Peca at the top of the right circle. Peca corralled the puck and lifted it over the right-shoulder of Diebold.
RPI stormed back four minutes later and tied the score at 1 on a deflection from the point. Higgs sent a pass to Nick Bailen across the point. Laliberte set a screen in front of Quinnipiac goaltender Eric Hartzell and deflected Bailen’s shot through the slot and past Hartzell to tie the game.
Six penalties were called in the second period, four on the Engineers and two on the Bobcats, but neither team could capitalize on the power play. Quinnipiac had a 5-on-3 man advantage after RPI’s Luke Caldari was called for a five-minute game misconduct for hitting Quinnipiac’s Cory Hibbeler from behind in the corner boards. Just minutes later RPI’s Bo Dolan was whistled for a cross checking call at 6:37. The Bobcats failed to convert on the power play and were lackluster all night.
The Engineers took a 2-1 lead with four minutes into the third. Schroeder found the back of the net off a rebound from a Higgs shot. The puck bounced loose on Hartzell’s left side as Mark McGowan shot a backhander that was denied. The rebound slid into the slot where Schroeder lofted it into the open net.
Quinnipiac quickly tied the game two minutes later at the 6:29 mark on a deflection in front by Zurevinski. Jeremy Langlois skated down the left wing and the initial shot attempt was denied by Diebold. The puck bounced to the side of the cage where Diebold tried to cover up, but a scrum ensued to his left and Zach Davies took the puck and found Tolkinen at the point. Tolkinen’ s shot was tipped in by Zurenvinski past Diebold to tie the score at 2.
“I guess the thing we did best was falling down 2–1 at home and battling back to tie it on a nice goal,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “I thought we really battled hard on that play.”
The Bobcats were without both Jones brothers, Connor and Kellen, who have 17 and 14 points this season, respectively. Without the twins, the Bobcats still managed to out-shoot the Engineers 38-22.
RPI was whistled for six penalties in 23 minutes, while just three penalties for six minutes for Quinnipiac, but neither team could convert a power-play goal.
With the win, Hartzell earned his 20th career victory and recorded 20 saves on 22 shots. Diebold made 35 saves for Rensselaer.
“Hartzy was good,” Pecknold said. “I think he’d like to have one of those back, but we won the game and he only gave up two goals for us.”
The Bobcats look to carry the momentum they earned this weekend, from a 2-2 tie versus Union and a 3-2 win against RPI, into a non-conference matchup with Sacred Heart on Friday at 7 p.m. at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center.
