Seniors Connor Jones and Jordan Samuels-Thomas were excited to get on the ice after the offseason, and they proved it on Sunday. Both Jones and Samuels-Thomas scored two goals apiece in a 7-2 exhibition victory against Saint Mary’s at the High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center.
“It was good to compete with someone other than ourselves,” Samuels-Thomas said. “It was fun to get out there, and a bunch of us have been looking forward to this since we got to school back in early August.”
Freshmen Peter Quenneville and Connor Clifton also scored a goal each in their first game in a Bobcat uniform.
“I thought they looked good, I think they’re going to look great this year,” Jones said on the freshman class.
In between the pipes, sophomore Michael Garteig had eight saves and let up no goals in his 35 minutes of play, before skating off with an ovation from the crowd as freshman Brady Rouleau stepped in net.
“Garteig looked good tonight, we need to get him a little confidence and game experience,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said.
The Bobcats dominated on the offensive side the entire game, outshooting the Huskies 39-16.
The gates opened up in late in the first period with Quenneville scoring following a wraparound attempt from Samuels-Thomas with 2:37 remaining in the period. A minute and a half later, sophomore Matt Lemire nailed a one-timer from Soren Jonzzon to give Quinnipiac a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.
Starting the second period on the power play, the Bobcats took advantage less than a minute into the period with a wrist shot from Samuels-Thomas. Saint Mary’s freshman Steven Shipley received a game misconduct for hitting freshman Zack Luczyk from behind and was ejected. The Bobcats took advantage of the five-minute major, scoring two power play goals, coming from Samuels-Thomas and Jones.
Jones finished up the second period scoring for the Bobcats with a short-handed snipe from the blue line with seven minutes remaining in the period.
The Huskies got on the board in the final minute of the period with a breakaway goal from Steven Beyers to make the score 6-1 going into the second intermission.
The Bobcats’ final goal came 23 seconds into the third period with a power-play goal from the freshman Clifton with a one-timer from Brooks Robinson. Saint Mary’s finished up the scoring with goal by senior Michael Strickland with 13 minutes remaining.
The Bobcats played a physical game with the Huskies, with 47 penalty minutes between the teams.
The Bobcats played well, but there still is room for improvement for the squad.
“We made mistakes at times, but we’ll look over the tape with the freshman and the older guys and work to get better,” Pecknold said.
Quinnipiac will head to Alaska this weekend to compete in the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage.
