The last time the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team squared off with Yale, it was left with feelings of anguish, grief, and bitter defeat. That very night last Apri,l the Bobcats fell to Yale in the NCAA Division I National Championship game 4-0, ending their inspirational season.
Tonight, Quinnipiac helped make some of that pain go away.
The highly anticipated re-match between the two teams at a sold out High Point Solutions Arena didn’t disappoint, as Quinnipiac erased a third period deficit to tie Yale 3-3. With the tie the Bobcats retain the Heroes Hat.
“That was a great college hockey game, outstanding atmosphere,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “It was a little bitter-sweet. At the end we came back to tie it to get the point and keep the heroes hat, but certainly disappointed to not win.”
Matthew Peca scored with 4:54 left to tie the game. Peca drilled a one timer past Lyon to tie the game at 3. It was his second goal of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a bigger time.
“When you get that many shots in a game, you know at some point you’re going to get yours,” Peca said. “[Travis] St. back-doored them, and luckily I had a wide open net in front.”
Quinnipiac outshot Yale 51-20 on the night.
“You expect to win hockey games when you outshoot an opponent like that,” Pecknold said. “That’s why you play the games, and we have to do a better job finishing.”
“We were looking forward to testing ourselves tonight,” Yale head coach Keith Allain said. “I thought we played pretty good team defense. We kept them from second shots. Our guys did a good job.”
The first period featured physical play and scoring chances for both sides. It wasn’t until the final minute of the period that Quinnipiac broke through.
Sam Anas scored first. The freshman forward found the puck in a scrum out in front of the net, and blasted it home at 19:04 to give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead. It was Anas’ eighth goal of the season.
The assist credited to Kellen Jones, his 99th career point.
The Bobcats added to that lead midway through the second period, as Jordan Samuels-Thomas netted his fifth goal of the season. Samuels-Thomas shot towards Yale goalie Alex Lyon, then cleaned up his own shot and put it through. Assists were given to Anas and Connor Clifton.
Anas now leads Quinnipiac with 16 points on the season.
Minutes later, the Bulldogs would respond. After Devon Toews was called for slashing Yale sophomore Ryan Obuchowski scored at 12:06, cutting the lead to 2-1. Tommy Fallen was given the assist on the power play goal.
Yale wasn’t done. Frankie DiChiara then scored almost two minutes later, tying the game at 2.
Then, to the disbelief of the crowd on hand, Yale scored yet again. This goal came only 22 seconds after the second goal. Mike Doherty scored the goal for Yale after he found a loose puck out in front of Quinnipiac netminder Michael Garteig, and in the blink of an eye Yale took a 3-2 lead at 15:24 in the second period.
The Bulldogs scored three times in 3:18 to take the lead.
Lyon then shut the door on Quinnipiac until late in the third period, when Peca tied it up.
“He’s had great looks all year,” Pecknold said. “I’ve been really happy with his play. Sometimes scoring just goes in streaks, but he’ll have his 40 or 50 points at the end of the year.”
Moments after Peca’s goal, Yale was called for too many men on the ice. The Bobcats yet again had a series of good scoring opportunities, but couldn’t break the tie. The game went into overtime.
With the tie, Quinnipiac retains the Heroes Hat. The Bobcats move to 9-1-1 on the season. The Bobcats square off against Harvard at home next Friday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
