HAMDEN, Conn – Senior forward Sadie Peart’s overtime goal propelled the Quinnipiac women’s hockey team to a grueling 2-1 victory over St. Lawrence Sunday, sending the Bobcats to the ECAC Hockey semifinals. 

SADIE PEART SAYS WE'RE ON TO THE NEXT ROUND 🎉🎉🎉 pic.twitter.com/GXgJGyQiNo

— Quinnipiac Women's Ice Hockey (@QU_WIH) February 26, 2023

Peart’s emotional goal just over three minutes into the overtime clinched a 2-1 series win for the hosts, who battled through injuries all weekend to advance to the next round. 

“It’s just awesome for Sadie,” Quinnipiac head coach Cass Turner said. “A phenomenal captain for this team, it’s just so clear how much everyone respects the work she puts in.”

Quinnipiac may have gotten the job done, but it wasn’t smooth sailing for the Bobcats.

The Bobcats came out of the locker room flying around the ice, dominating puck possession early in the game, but just couldn’t find the net. The Bobcats missed on their first great chance of the game, with sophomore forward Maya Labad connecting with the post.

St. Lawrence didn’t let its chances go to waste, scoring the opening goal as junior forward Julia Gosling cleaned up a rebound in front off the pad of graduate student goaltender Logan Angers.

Gosling’s third goal of the series put Quinnipiac on its heels early on, but the Bobcats still felt like they were the better team.

“I think starting the game the way we did was the biggest key,” Turner said. “We didn’t finish that period in the right spot in terms of the score, but how we played in the first ten minutes of the game, before they scored there was only one puck that went towards our net and that was just so important for our momentum and our confidence that we could win that hockey game.”

The Bobcats had their best chance to tie it up when Saints’ junior forward Anna Segedi was sent to the box for tripping, but Quinnipiac went silent on the power play, unable to muster any offense as the visitors easily got back to even strength. 

Quinnipiac used the intermission to re-group, as the ECAC Hockey’s No. 3 seed came out of the locker room buzzing in the offensive zone. 

Freshman forward Madison Chantler took her shot at tying it up, but just like Labad, she was also denied by the pipe. 

The energy in the air was palpable, as fans in the crowd and the players on the bench could feel the Bobcats were close to equalizing the score. 

“You could see throughout, before we even scored that we were hitting pipe, getting so many chances, we were tearing them out, we looked like we were in way better shape,” Peart said.

That equalizer finally came in the third period, with the Bobcats on a power play kill. 

Senior defenseman Kate Reilly skated all the way down the ice, beating Lucy Morgan high stick side to knot the game at one. 

🥵 KATE 🥵 REILLY 🥵 SNIPE 🥵 CITY 🥵 pic.twitter.com/rSGN1hAcw3

— Quinnipiac Women's Ice Hockey (@QU_WIH) February 26, 2023

“She just has such great heart,” Turner said. “She cares so much about her teammates, she’s confident to make plays, and that’s why you see her step up in big moments and make those plays.”

Minutes after Reilly had tied it, Quinnipiac thought it had gone ahead, when graduate student forward Lexie Adzija found the back of the net, but the refs waved it off after further review for goalie interference. 

Although Adzija’s goal didn’t count, it signaled a turn of the tide for a Bobcats team that once again had life. 

As if playing three games in one weekend wasn’t tiring enough, the two teams couldn’t figure out a winner in 60 minutes, so the quarterfinal headed to an overtime all squared at one. 

60 minutes wasn’t enough, but 64 was. Peart got the puck on her stick with some space in the middle, lifting a shot over Morgan’s shoulder to send the home crowd into a frenzy and her team to the ECAC Hockey Semifinals.

“You always dream of that, right?” Peart said. “Just the passion this team brings, the motivation and the trust we all have in each other, there’s no better group I’d want to do it with.”

The quarterfinal affair tested which team had done the hard work over the off-season, as the two sides battled for over 180 minutes over the three-day series. 

“It’s months in the making,” Turner said. “Our team takes a couple weeks off at the end of the season, but  we start right away. This is a 12-month process to get to the place where you can play overtime games, where you can play three games in a weekend. Our team works hard, We condition on ice and we really push them, and they value that and they really dive in and believe in it. So, I know in those moments when they really need to dig in, they’re ready.”

Quinnipiac will have until Friday to rest up before taking on No. 2 Colgate in the ECAC Hockey Semifinals at Ingalls Rink in New Haven on March 3.