Quinnipiac University women’s hockey hosted the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers on Saturday afternoon at the TD Bank Sports Center, looking to sweep their opening weekend of ECAC Hockey play. With an offensive attack led by freshman Heather Hughes’ hat trick, and a four-goal first period, the Bobcats coasted to a 6-1 win.

Sophomore Bethany Dymarczyk started the scoring for Quinnipiac with a rare goal from the blue line four minutes into the game. While on a man advantage, Dymarczyk ripped a shot from the blue stripe that found its way through three Engineers and goalie Sonja van der Bliek. Dymarczyk leapt into the air after the improbable goal.

Twenty-six seconds later, Quinnipiac struck again when Heather Hughes received a pass from fellow freshman Breehan Polci, and went top shelf.

The Bobcats padded their lead six minutes later, on another power play. Hughes skated to the front of the net to tip in a rebound off Dymarczyk’s shot.

RPI’s Shannon Ramelot replaced van der Bliek in net following the third Bobcats’ goal, but senior Janine Duffy welcomed the new netminder with a goal before the first period ended.

With just over a minute remaining, Hughes took a pass from sophomore Jordan Elkins, and found Duffy on the right side of the net. Duffy cracked a shot past Ramelot with enough power to lodge the puck in between the post and the net, giving the Bobcats a four-goal lead to carry into the locker room at the first intermission.

After a quiet second period, the Engineers were able to get on the board in the third. On a power play, RPI pulled Ramelot in favor of an extra skater for an offensive zone faceoff. Allysen Weidner found Taylor Horton on her way to the net, and after being denied on the first attempt, Horton poked the puck between the pads of freshman goalie Victoria Vigilanti to cut the deficit to 4-1.

The Engineers kept the extra skater on the ice following the goal, and the Bobcats were able to strike twice on the empty net.

Hughes tallied three goals and four points for the Bobcats, giving her the team lead in both categories with six and seven, respectively.

Sophomore Stacey Kmill tacked on an empty netter with 13 seconds remaining, giving the Bobcats a 6-1 win.

The six goals and margin of victory were the highest for the Bobcats since 2007. Vigilanti saved 29 shots in the win for the Bobcats, who improve to 4-3-1 overall, and 2-0-0 in ECAC Hockey.

They’ll look to continue their high offensive output next weekend with games at Brown and Yale.