Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey honored its six seniors before its game against Brown on Friday night as part of its Senior Night festivities. After the game, the senior class repeated a celebration it had already taken part in twice since becoming a Bobcat.
The top-ranked Bobcats (24-2-7, 15-1-5 ECAC) beat the Brown Bears 4-1 and clinched its third conference regular season title in the last four seasons. Although senior captain Soren Jonzzon cut his face on the Cleary Cup in the celebration, it is still a trophy that the group of seniors is proud to continue bringing back to Hamden.
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“We’ve accomplished a lot in our four years here,” senior goaltender Michael Garteig said. “That group of guys, I could probably cry talking about how awesome they are. Realistically, it’s been the best four years of my life.”
Senior Travis St. Denis did not take long to get the Bobcats going on his Senior Night. The play started after he took one of Tanner MacMaster’s sticks after breaking his own. He then scored his 18th goal of the season as he took one off a rebound and slid it beneath Brown goalie Tim Ernst, extending his goal streak to five games.
St. Denis, who also assisted on Quinnipiac’s final goal to put him at a career-high 38 for the season, reflected on his choice come to Quinnipiac.
“The past four years have been the best of my life,” St. Denis said. “The whole experience, the school part of it and also the hockey part of it, has just been unreal. I’m glad I made the decision to come to Quinnipiac. That’s for sure.”
Sam Anas also remained hot with St. Denis’ goal. His assist on the play extended his point streak to 16 games and put him at 43 points for the season, four better than Harvard’s Jimmy Vesey for the most in the ECAC.
“I guess the pucks have been going my way,” Anas said. “I didn’t think I had my best game tonight, but I think that was a great play by [Landon Smith] on the power play to get the puck to the net and [St. Denis] was able to put it in.”
Tim Clifton extended the Bobcat’s lead to 2-0 with 13:01 left in the second period. Scott Davidson left the puck in the crease and Clifton put a stick on it to bury his 16th goal of the season.
A pair of freshmen led to Quinnipiac’s two third period goals. Thomas Aldworth rushed the puck up the ice as he weaved through Brown defenders. He then dropped a pass in to Kevin McKernan, who knocked the puck in for his third goal in his last four games after going scoreless in his first 29.
Luke Shiplo gave the Bobcats their fourth and final goal. He deked a defender and beat Ernst on the far side of the net with 3:57 left in the third for his fourth goal of the season.
Brown’s Davey Middleton ended Garteig’s chance to record his 19th career shutout 2:30 into the third period. However, Garteig was more than happy to come out of the game with hardware.
“We just won a Cleary Cup, which is pretty awesome,” Garteig said. “It’s not an easy thing to do in a league this hard. The ECAC is stacked in my opinion. I think we did a great job tonight.”
Quinnipiac has one more regular season game on tap tomorrow night. The Bobcats will square off against the No. 7 Yale Bulldogs in the 14th Annual Heroes Hat Game. Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said the game is just as important as any other late in the season.
“Who are we playing tomorrow? What are we doing?” Pecknold said. “Every game is a big game. Right now, we just have to get organized, enjoy for a little bit and start focusing on Yale.”
