After taking down No. 1 Cornell Friday night, Quinnipiac secured another victory over an ECAC Hockey opponent in a dogfight against Colgate.

In a battle for positioning in the conference, Quinnipiac improved to 9-4-1 (16-9-1 overall) following the weekend sweep and moved into a tie for third place with Harvard. Colgate (9-11-6, 7-4-3 ECAC Hockey) currently sits in fourth place in the standings tied with RPI.

“We’re happy with getting the win tonight, I thought it was resilient. I was really impressed with Colgate, I thought they played hard,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We’re ready for next weekend.”

The first period did not provide a ton of action outside of a pair of breakaway opportunities, one for each side that was stifled by the netminders.

Quinnipiac came storming out of the gates to start the second period. The Bobcats dominated puck possession as the team cycled the puck shift after shift firing off 11 shots in a span of seven minutes while holding Colgate to just one shot.

Following an interference call against Colgate, Quinnipiac capitalized on the man-power opportunity by creating chaos around Colgate sophomore goaltender Andrew Farrier. Quinnipiac sophomore defenseman Peter DeLiberatore eventually poked a loose puck into the back of the net to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Colgate gained back some momentum and dominated the next few minutes, drawing a penalty in the process. However, the team’s ultimate weakness this season has been on the man-advantage. Colgate generated a few scoring chances, but all of them were snuffed out.

Fortunately for Colgate, it forced a turnover with under 30 seconds left in the second period and came in on Quinnipiac junior goaltender Keith Petruzzelli on a 4-on-2, odd-man rush.

Senior forward John Snodgrass fired a shot off of Petruzzelli’s left pad which kicked straight out to unguarded Colgate forward junior Tyler Jeanson, who promptly placed the puck fired the puck past Petruzzelli with just 12 seconds left in the period.

The third period began with a bang as Quinnipiac sophomore forward Wyatt Bongiovanni received a beautiful pass from junior forward Odeen Tufto and tucked the puck under the crossbar, giving the Bobcats a 2-1 lead just 17 seconds into the final period.

Tufto also recorded the assist on DeLiberatore’s second-period goal, pushing his total to 26 on the season. He leads the ECAC in assists and this marks his third consecutive season of at least 25 assists.

Quinnipiac put its foot on the gas and started to control the possession-game while suppressing every Colgate offensive opportunity.

Despite the constant offensive pressure, Farrier prevented Quinnipiac from extending its lead. His defense assisted by eating pucks throughout the whole game, totaling 19 blocked shots.

With just over four minutes to play, Bongiovanni was called for hooking, forcing Quinnipiac’s fans to sweat out the final minutes of the game as the Bobcats held a 2-1 lead.

Once again, Colgate’s kryptonite was evident as it could not muster a shot on net, sinking the team’s power play percentage to 4.39% on the season (4-91).

Ensuing an icing and a pair of timeouts, Colgate fired everything it could at Petruzzelli attempting to tie the game up. Petruzzelli concluded the game with a series of brilliant saves, two of which came in the last 15 seconds of the game.

Quinnipiac will finish out the season with nine straight ECAC Hockey matchups, beginning this upcoming Friday, Feb. 7, where it will take a drive down Whitney Avenue to faceoff in New Haven against Yale.