Senior assistant captain Brandon Wong said the Bobcats look to go out and win every night, but a win is something the Bobcats have been waiting for since Dec. 12, 2009.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s ice hockey team skated to a 3-3 tie with the Niagara Purple Eagles on Saturday night at the TD Bank Sports Center. While the tie ended a seven-game losing streak, the Bobcats dropped to 1-9-2 in their past 12 games after starting the season 12-1.
“It’s the nature of the beast right now,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We’re just not getting any breaks. We battled all night, and we played great. But the puck is just refusing to go in right now. We just have to keep battling. I have to give the guys a lot of credit. They’re not quitting, but we need to get better results.”
One night after targeting 50 shots on goal, the Bobcats fired 58 shots at goaltender Chris Noonan.
“I think throughout everyone’s career you have a slide similar to this,” sophomore forward Scott Zurevinski said. “It’s tough, but we just have to find a way out of it and keep whacking away. Eventually they’re going to go in and we’re going to start winning games.”
The Bobcats took a comfortable 3-1 lead into the third period after a late second period goal by Wong, but gave up two even-strength goals in the first two minutes of the period.
The tie snapped a 44-game unbeaten streak for the Bobcats in games that they led by two or more goals heading into the final period.
“We had a 3-1 lead and we were dominating the game, and the turnover before the second goal was just atrocious,” Pecknold said. “There’s no reason to do it. It was just stupid. And the third goal should never have gone in either.”
Wong, whose last goal came eight games ago in the Bobcats last victory, scored his 13th and 14th goals of the season to give the Bobcats the lead going into the third period.
“We’re in a hole right now and we’re going to have to find a way to get back,” Wong said. “We’re expecting to win every night – that was one of our goals coming into the season. I think we’re doing a little too much talking off the ice right now, and not showing it on the ice.”
Wong had two power-play goals and Zurevinski assisted on all three Bobcat goals.
“Wong and Zurevinski were probably our two best players,” Pecknold said. “Wong got it going again, and he was in a little bit of a slump. Hopefully he can get it rolling, and we can get some balanced scoring. If we keep playing like that we’re going to win a lot of hockey games. This just cannot continue to happen to us.”
Senior captain Jean-Marc Beaudoin scored his seventh goal of the season for the Bobcats early in the second period.
Quinnipiac returns to ECAC Hockey play for the rest of the season, starting with Dartmouth on the road on Friday.
