Coming fresh off a loss on Friday night against Harvard, the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team looked to bounce back on Saturday night against Dartmouth at the Frank Perrotti, Jr. Arena. Dartmouth too, entered the matchup on the tail of a loss as they fell at Princeton on Friday night, 9-2.

While sophomore goalie Andrew Shortridge recorded a 24-save shutout, for the second night in a row, the Bobcats (6-8-2, 3-5-1 ECAC) notched 43 shots against their opponent, but had little to show for it as they tied the Big Green (2-6-1, 2-4-1 ECAC) 0-0.

[media-credit id=2182 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey head coach Rand Pecknold did not have an answer for the lack of goals finding the back of the net for the Bobcats.

“I thought we played great tonight. It was a great effort, we battled, you know, 43 shots and you can’t score a goal, that’s a credit to (Dartmouth goalie Adrian) Clark,” Pecknold stated. “Sometimes the puck doesn’t go in the net. Sometimes it goes in all the time for you, that’s the way it works.”

The Bobcats had their most convincing scoring play of the game in the first period when the puck was poked into the net by sophomore forward Logan Mick only to be called back for goalie interference.

After that call, no matter how many shots the Bobcats bombarded on the Clark, none would get past him.

“We scored that goal in the first period and the referee blew the quick whistle there,” Pecknold said. “It was a mistake on [the referee’s] part and that’s life, you move on, but we can’t seem to buy a break right now.”

The clean sheet for both Quinnipiac and Dartmouth continued into the third period.

Less than three minutes into the final frame, Mick crashed into Dartmouth defender Joey Matthews on the boards. Matthews remained face down on the ice after the hit.

Matthews was helped off the ice by trainers, while Mick received a five-minute major penalty for interference.

Mick’s call triggered a series of back-and-forth penalties between the Bobcats and the Big Green to close out the game. The two teams racked up a total of five penalties which were all assessed in the final seven and a half minutes of regulation play.

[media-credit id=2182 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Despite the multiple runs at power plays, both teams still could not find the back of the net.
Junior defenseman captain Chase Priskie noted the team’s effort to keep Dartmouth off the scoresheet for all five minutes of Mick’s penalty.

“Sometimes you just have to go for the guy next to you,” Priskie said. “The four guys we roll over every shift on that penalty kill are willing to sacrifice everything for the team.”

As the regulation horn sounded after the third period, the score remained locked at 0 and the two teams matched up for overtime.

In the extra time, the offensive struggles continued and even though Quinnipiac edged Dartmouth 4-3 in shots on goal, nothing came to fruition. The game ended as it started with no score.

Not focusing on the offensive woes, Priskie praised the defensive prowess of the Bobcats.

“I thought our defensive core was great tonight. They had great gap and great sticks. We didn’t give Dartmouth much offensive zone time,” Priskie said. “That’s how we need to play every game if we want to be successful. It showed off tonight, we were up in their face, made them turn the puck over in transition.”

The Bobcats will have until Friday, Dec. 8 to prepare for their next set of games against the Maine Black Bears (6-7-1).