The No. 1 Quinnipiac men’s hockey team suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss against the Colgate Raiders Saturday, marking a two-game losing streak after a 4-0 loss to Cornell Friday. 

The weekend sweep was the first time Quinnipiac dropped two in a row to an ECAC Hockey opponent since Nov. 22-23, of 2019, also on a roadstand against Cornell and Colgate.

Unlike their loss on Friday, the Bobcats were able to effectively take advantage of the power play, scoring one of their two goals with four Raiders defenders on the ice.

Quinnipiac started out hot, with sophomore forward Collin Graf scoring the first goal of the night on the man-advantage assisted by freshman forward Sam Lipkin. Then, just seven minutes into the second period, sophomore forward Christophe Fillion was able to put one past Colgate junior goaltender Carter Gylander for his seventh of the season, with an assist coming from sophomore forward Christophe Tellier.

However, it was all downhill for Quinnipiac from that moment on. Sophomore goaltender Yaniv Perets, who has had a fantastic season for the Bobcats, sitting fourth in the nation with a 1.80 goals against average, had not allowed a goal in the first half of the series with Colgate. However, Perets would allow an uncharacteristic three goals down the stretch, two of which coming in the third period. 

Perets was crucial to his team’s success in the first period, racking up several key saves to maintain the Bobcats early lead, but the goaltender was not able to replicate that performance during the second half of the game.

The first goal of the night for Colgate came from senior forward Ethan Manderville, who tipped home a shot from junior forward Alex Young while the Bobcats were two men down.. The goal was Manderville’s fourth of the year and 12th of his career.

During the start of the third period, Colgate seized its chance to tie the game when sophomore forward Ryan McGuire caught his own shot attempt off a rebound and was able to weave his second attempt into the goal. 

Sophomore forward Ben Raymond put the game away with his own goal just minutes after his teammate McGuire tied the score. Raymond cruised up the ice, beating graduate student defenseman Zach Metsa to the far post, and squeezed the puck past a sprawling Perets, putting Colgate up 3-2. The crowd became electric as the flashing lights of the arena shined, and the Bobcats looked to tie the game.

Quinnipiac’s offense stalled for the final 10 minutes and were unable to send the game to overtime, despite controlling the puck for the final minutes. Even with the officials adding 1.2 seconds back on the clock, the Bobcats leave this game with more questions than answers.

Quinnipiac will have its next matchup on Jan. 27, when it hosts Sacred Heart in the first leg of the formerly-named CT Ice Tournament . Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.