The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team came into Friday night’s game against Cornell (13-5-3, 10-2-2 ECACH) looking for a much-needed victory after dropping 10 of their last 13 games, but the Big Red’s defense was too much for a struggling Quinnipiac offense.
But the slide continued for Quinnipiac, as they fell 2-0 on a night when Cornell goaltender Ben Scrivens was on the top of his game. It was the 15th shutout of the season for Scrivens, who finished with 32 saves, and the first time Quinnipiac had been shut out all season.
“I think it was pretty apparent tonight why he’s one of the best goaltenders, if not the best, in the nation,” Pecknold said. “The one thing I always liked about Scrivens is that he never gives up a soft goal.”
Quinnipiac failed to capitalize on five power-play opportunities, including a two-man advantage at the end of the first period.
“I didn’t think we did a good enough job of creating traffic in front of the net,” Pecknold said. “Sometimes we played well, but ultimately we needed to find a way to stay out of the penalty box. Our power play just wasn’t very good. We were ineffective tonight in that situation.”
The Big Red capitalized on an early tripping penalty against freshman forward Jeremy Langlois when Justin Krueger snatched up a rebound off a slap shot by Blake Gallagher 5:09 into the period. Krueger put the puck past Dan Clarke for his first goal of the year.
In the physical first period, Quinnipiac had numerous chances to even the score; possibly the best coming on a breakaway by senior forward Greg Holt at the 16:17 mark. Holt received a pass from Brandon Wong and beat the last Cornell defender, but his shot was stuffed by Scrivens. The play was reviewed by the officials, but the initial no-goal call held up.
The Bobcats had another scoring opportunity late in the period when they gained a two-man advantage with 30 seconds left, but a strong defensive stand by the Cornell penalty-kill squad prevented them from evening the score.
Cornell scored again in the early going of the third period when Tyler Roeszler scooped up a loose puck in front of the crease and put it in the back of the net at the 2:28 mark.
A misconduct penalty by senior Eric Lampe in the third period all but ended any chance of the Bobcats staging a late comeback.
The loss dropped Quinnipiac’s record to 13-12-2 overall and 7-8 in ECAC Hockey.
Photo credit: Charlotte Greene
