The Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team improved to 8-0-1 on the season with a 6-1 win of Rensselaer at High Point Solutions Arena on Friday night.
Still, Quinnipiac head coach Rick Seeley didn’t think the team played to the best of its capabilities.
“This was probably our sloppiest game of the year,” Seeley said. “Coming off a two-week layoff, I guess we expected to be a little rusty. But I thought, overall, we didn’t show up with the normal intensity. We gave the puck away a lot and we’ll have to tighten up for tomorrow’s game against Union.”
Seeley also felt Quinnipiac’s sloppiness could have been attributed to the fact that the Bobcats play to their level of competition,.
“If Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Clarkson was in our building tonight, there might have been a different level of urgency,” Seeley said. “You live and learn. In the past, we haven’t won games like this, so it’s nice that we have the depth to pull out games like this.”
For Quinnipiac, the first line of Nicole Kosta, Shiann Darkangelo and Erica Uden Johansson all scored a goal in the victory.
Kosta started the scoring with the only goal in the first period. Uden Johansson then extended the lead to 2-0 with her second goal on the season. Left-wing Shiann Darkangelo then gave Quinnipiac a 3-0 lead to the end the second period.
“It was nice that [the first line] broke out,” Seeley said. “All the goals were nice skilled goals from elite players.”
Taryn Baumgardt notched her first goal on the year in the third period, and left-winger Nicole Connery added a pair of goals to make it 6-0 Quinnipiac.
Despite her multi-goal effort, Connery credited her individual success to her linesman.
“Personally, I struggled in the first and second period and those goals in the third got me hyped,” Connery said. “But, I have to do better in the first and second period. And I had my teammates to lift me up. My linemen after every shift pick me up.”
Connery added, however, that she thinks the team has room for improvement.
“We can definitely play better than that,” Connery said. “During practice, I can tell we are more focused on little details, and tonight we didn’t play the way we normally do. That’s something we have to think about and we’re definitely preparing to play better tomorrow.”
Moving forward, Quinnipiac hosts Union (1-8-2) tomorrow at High Point Solutions Arena. This will be Quinnipiac’s last test before it matches up with Clarkson, who has an 8-3 record, on Friday at home.
“In terms of playing a complete game, we have some work to do,” Seeley said. “We have to get back to the details. We have a greater sense of urgency for every battle and every detail.”
