HAMDEN, Conn. – As the ECAC Hockey postseason began on Friday, the No. 8 Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team left its recent struggles at the door of M&T Bank Arena, at least for the night. The Bobcats took game one of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals, 2-1 against St. Lawrence. 

Quinnipiac wasn’t entering uncharted territory facing off against the Saints, having played them on the road last week. St. Lawrence contributed to the Bobcats’ recent skid, defeating them 4-1. 

“We did some good things in that game, clearly we weren’t good enough,” Quinnipiac head coach Cass Turner said. “It was nice to play them quickly after that to get a chance to really improve.” 

The familiarity was there as game one got underway. Neither team were able to generate much offense to start, and both teams were only able to muster one shot on goal through the first five minutes. Graduate student goaltender Logan Angers kept the action knotted at zero thanks to a stellar save on junior forward Anna Segedi’s breakaway attempt. 

Angers was only able to hold the Saints at bay for so long, however, as with just over three minutes to play in the first frame, St. Lawrence grabbed the lead. Junior forward Julia Gosling was the fastest player on the ice all night, and that was no different on her breakaway goal, finished off with some filthy stick handles. 

As the first period came to a close, the Bobcats found themselves in a familiar position as of late – trailing. Heading into the second period, Quinnipiac needed some veterans to grab ahold of the reins and salvage its season. 

“We just went into the locker room and talked about what we’re good at,” senior right winger Alexa Hoskin said. “We’re relentless on the forecheck, I think that’s a big part of our game.” 

The Bobcats forecheck certainly made its presence known early in the second period thanks to Hoskin. The right winger took advantage of Saints’ senior goaltender Lucy Morgan’s inability to gather the rebound, and banked home the puck from the left side of the net. 

Following Hoskin’s goal, the momentum change was palpable in the arena. Quinnipiac settled into its offensive zone, applying constant pressure on Morgan.

“We really want to take the pucks to the net,” Turner said. “I think it’s something that has been missing a little bit from our offensive game.” 

The pressure was put on pause however as two consecutive hooking penalties on senior forward Sadie Peart and junior right wing Nina Steigauf  put the Bobcats on the penalty kill for over four minutes. Quinnipiac killed off those four minutes without much trouble thanks to its NCAA Division I leading penalty kill. 

Later in the second period, the Bobcats got back to applying the pressure on Morgan, who struggled all night with heavy congestion around her crease. Peart made up for her earlier penalty as she found herself on the scoring end of one of those Quinnipiac scrums in front of the Saints’ net. 

“You could see from both of our goals, their goalie doesn’t do well with scrums,” Peart said. “We just wanted to continue to attack.” 

The third period was your classic Rock’em Sock’em playoff hockey as Saint Lawrence was throwing everything it had at the Bobcats. 

“In the third we had so much character and so much grit to be able to pull out that game,” Turner said. 

The Saints stayed in the game till the very end, pulling Morgan with just over a minute remaining and going on the man advantage. St. Lawrence’s last second attempt came within inches of forcing overtime as junior defenseman Kristina Bahl’s shot rattled off the post, and the final horn sounded. 

Quinnipiac will be back in action Saturday at 3 p.m. as it has a chance to end St. Lawrence’s season and move onto the ECAC Hockey semifinals.