Adjusting to college hockey has been fairly easy for Sam Anas and Derek Smith. The freshman right wing and defenseman led the Bobcats with two goals and two assists Tuesday night to defeat the Bentley Falcons, 4-3.
With his two goals Tuesday, Anas now has three goals on the season, also tallying two assists.
“He’s a goal scorer, and we saw that tonight,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said.
Smith got his third and fourth assist on the year, a team high.
The beginning of the first period was all Bobcats. Jordan Samuels-Thomas put the Bobcats on the board with a wrist shot passed Branden Komm 1:28 into the game. Anas then lit the lamp for the first time off a rebound from a Matthew Peca shot to put the Bobcats up two with 10:34 remaining.
The Falcons cut the lead in half with 6:50 left in the period with an unassisted goal by Alex Grieve.
The Bobcats offense dominated the entire second period, outshooting the Falcons 17-1. Quinnipiac took advantage of the power play in the second period, scoring two goals. The first came from Anas, putting in his second goal of the day with a wrist shot that went top shelf, assisted by Peter Quenneville and Kellen Jones. The second came from a snipe just in front of the blue line by Zach Tolkinen, assisted by Dan Federico and Quenneville.
Trailing 4-1, Bentley did not give up. Senior forward Justin Breton deflected in a Charlie Donners shot to cut Quinnipiac’s lead to two.
Bentley continued the rally in the third period. Immediately after a Cory Hibbeler hooking call, Brett Switzer put in a power-play goal to narrow the lead down to one with eight minutes remaining in the game. The Bobcats played good defense for the rest of the period to avoid a tie, and held on to take the victory.
“We play our practice like their games, we all want prepare as much as we can for the games,” Anas said.
Despite the win, Pecknold still sees that there is room for improvement.
“We’re happy we got our win. We weren’t perfect tonight, but we found a way to win when we made it close late in the game,” Pecknold said.
The Bobcats go up against Holy Cross this weekend with a home-and-home series. Quinnipiac hosts the Crusaders at TD Bank Sports Center on Oct. 26.
