The last time the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team met with Yale, Michael Garteig saved 17 shots and surrendered three goals in a tie. But that game was on Nov. 9 at High Point Solutions Arena in Hamden, and tonight’s went much differently.

Garteig turned in an impressive 33-save shutout for the Bobcats on Friday night, and No. 4 Quinnipiac went on to defeat No. 13 Yale 4-0 in front of a sold-out crowd at Ingalls Rink in New Haven.

It was Garteig’s NCAA-leading fifth shutout of the season, which ties the Quinnipiac program record set by Eric Hartzell only a year ago.

“He was great tonight,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “I thought it was one of the better games that he’s played all year. We did a good job out in front of him, too. Guys were diving and blocking shots, but I thought Michael was just really good.”

Both teams came out firing from the opening puck drop, sending a flurry of shots toward either net.

Quinnipiac’s best chance early on came 8:02 into the game, when Connor Clifton went cross-ice to Matthew Peca. Peca blasted a one-timer at Yale goalie Alex Lyons, but Lyons made a glove-save to keep the Bobcats off the board.

Just over four minutes later, however, Quinnipiac finally broke through.

Bryce Van Brabant won the draw from the right dot, then Bobcat-captain Cory Hibbeler blasted it past Lyons into the upper-right corner, giving Quinnipiac the 1-0 lead with 7:53 left in the first period.

[Van Brabant] was just a big man,” Hibbeler said. “He got in there and won it back. I stepped back and saw a lane and threw the puck on the net and it had eyes and went over the goalie’s shoulder.”

The goal was Hibbeler’s fifth of the season.

“It’s always big to get the first goal on the road, that’s always the game plan,” Hibbeler said.

On the other end, Quinnipiac blocked eight Yale shots in the first period.

“That’s how we play, our guys are great at it,” Pecknold said. “It’s part of our culture. Kids are willing to do it, and it’s certainly effective.”

“We expected them to come out firing,” Hibbeler said. “They were at home, so we knew they would have that type of energy.”

In the second period, the Bobcats broke things open. Sam Anas was called for interference at 14:36, putting Yale on the power play.

The Bulldogs proceeded to pepper a series of shots at Michael Garteig, and the light above the goal lite as if Yale had tied things up. There was no goal, however, as the light was inadvertent.

Garteig ended up with 11 saves in each period.

“They were able to cash in on their scoring opportunities and we weren’t,” Yale head coach Keith Allain. “Give their goalie some credit for that.”

Nine seconds after killing the power play the Bobcats capitalized. Sam Anas found the puck amidst a scrum out in front of the net, then backhanded it past Lyons to make it 2-0 Quinnipiac.

The goal marks Anas’ team-leading 17th of the season. The freshman also scored in the first meeting between the two teams this season.

18 seconds later Quinnipiac scored again, as Connor Clifton zipped one past Lyons to extend the advantage to three goals.

Tommy Schutt added one more for good measure late in the third period, his second goal of the season. Hibbeler was credited with the assist, his third of the night.

Pecknold addressed his team’s aggressiveness after the game, saying that he expects them to play like they did on Friday every single night.

“I want our team to play with a chip on their shoulder against everybody,” Pecknold said. “We didn’t really even talk about the win after the game, we just talked about Brown.”

With the win the Bobcats improve to 21-5-5 on the season. They travel to Brown tomorrow, with puck drop schedule for 4 p.m.