Quinnipiac routed Union 5-0 on Thursday night as Travis St. Denis earned his 100th career point with a three-point performance.
“You look at the players up on that list and there are a ton of unreal guys from the past and a couple that I’ve played with,” St. Denis said. “It’s definitely a feather in the cap for myself. Yeah, I’m pretty happy about it.”
St. Denis entered the game with 98 career points (47 goals, 51 assists). He earned an assist in the first period before scoring two goals in the third period. The first came on a pinpoint shot from the right side on the power play. With that goal, St. Denis became the 38th Quinnipiac player, and 24th at the NCAA Division I level, to reach 100 points. He scored his second goal of the game on a tip-in that came from Sam Anas behind the net with seven minutes left in regulation.
“I just think he’s been a phenomenal player over his four-year career for us,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “He does it all.”
Landon Smith broke the scoring in the first period on a power play following a slashing penalty on Union captain Mike Vecchione. St. Denis and Tim Clifton worked the puck to Smith who knocked the puck in from the right side for his sixth goal of the year.
The Bobcats doubled their lead to 2-0 with 2:52 left in the first. Tanner MacMaster brought the puck up the left side of the ice on a 2-on-1 opportunity before passing it to Thomas Aldworth for the goal. The goal was Aldworth’s fourth goal of the season and his first since Oct. 15.
“I thought [Aldworth] was really good tonight and he was rewarded for it. He scores that goal, but even more than the goal, he hunted pucks. He played the way we want to play at Quinnipiac,” Pecknold said.
Union had a chance to cut its 2-0 deficit in half midway through the second period after Aldworth and Tommy Schutt went to the Quinnipiac penalty box. However, it was the Bobcats who scored on the Dutchmen’s 5-on-3 advantage.
Alex Miner-Barron was able to start a breakaway after a Union defenseman slipped in the offensive zone. Union goalie Alex Sakellaropoulos stopped Miner-Barron’s initial shot but Tim Clifton swooped in and put home the rebound for his team-leading 13th goal of the season.
“[Miner-Barron] takes off with a burst of speed, 2-on-1,” Clifton said, “And he makes an absolutely beautiful pass off the pad and it just landed right on my tape. All I had to do was make contact with it, so all credit to [Miner-Barron] with that one.”
St. Denis added his two third period goals to cap off the 5-0 victory for the Bobcats. The win elevated Quinnipiac to 18-1-3 overall and 9-0-2 in ECAC play. The Bobcats’ 20 conference points keeps them atop the ECAC.
The team returns to the ice on Saturday when it faces Harvard (8-2-3, 4-1-3 ECAC) at Madison Square Garden as part of the Rivalry on Ice. Quinnipiac won the first meeting 4-1 at High Point Solutions Arena on Nov. 13. Harvard blew a two-goal lead with four minutes left in the game in a 6-5 loss to cross-town rival Boston University on Thursday night.
“Once our schedule got released and we saw the game at MSG, we kind of circled it,” St. Denis said. “To play against Harvard, who is second in PairWise right now, it’s going to be a huge game. We beat them last time here at home so they’re going to come out hard. We just have to match up and answer.”
