When playing the No. 4 team in the nation, anything but a group effort will not suffice. Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold knew the importance of such a conference game, especially before entering a six-game long road trip through the end of November.
“I thought we needed to compete, crash the net, and just outwork them,” Pecknold said. “I thought our first period was awful; we lost battles, we lost races, and I gave it to them pretty good after the first. We came out in the second and third period and completely took over the game.”
The Bobcats defeated the Big Red Saturday evening by a final score of 4-1, earning their sixth win of 21 contests all time against Cornell. Four different players scored for Quinnipiac, including team-leader in goals, Jeremy Langlois.
“You definitely want to put points on the board in November,” Pecknold said. “They mean just as much as points in February. It was a good game for us.”
Quinnipiac broke the scoreless tie at 8:03 in the second period. Kellen Jones received a pass at the left circle, and a fired a shot through the five hole of Andy Iles, good for the 1-0 advantage and Jones’ first goal of the year. The goal was also the Bobcats second power play goal in as many games, following a previous 0-for-30 streak.
Just 6:53 later, Quinnipiac added insurance to their lead. Ben Arnt skated up through the right side of the slot, before flicking the puck off the left shoulder of Iles and in for the 2-0 Bobcat lead.
Quinnipiac proceeded to break the game open early in the third, with goals coming off the sticks of Langlois and Cory Hibbeler. In the fourth minute of play, Langlois skated through two defenders after receiving a pass from Clay Harvey. Langlois deked, and wristed a shot through the five hole for his fourth goal of the year.
Later, Hibbeler hit the twine on a shot from the hash marks to nail the victory for the Bobcats. Sandwiched between, Cornell got their lone goal of the contest off the stick of Greg Miller at 4:05.
“Each guy goes out there, and outworks the next guy,” Jones said. “ I think we’re kind of rolling and shutting teams down that way.”
Quinnipiac takes the week off before squaring off at Clarkson and St. Lawrence next Friday and Saturday.
