HAMDEN, Conn. – After a tight overtime win on Friday, Quinnipiac took on AIC on its home ice Saturday, sweeping the weekend series against the Yellow Jackets home with an 8-0 win.
M&T Bank Arena wasn’t even full before sophomore forward Sam Lipkin opened the scoring five minutes in. Following his tally, the Bobcats poured on 10 shots in the first half of the opening period alone, and did not take their foot off the gas the rest of the night.
The first of many penalties belonged to Quinnipiac sophomore defenseman Charles Alexis Legault for tripping. AIC attempted to even the score with its power-play, but its two shots were promptly saved by freshman goaltender Matej Marinov, who made his collegiate debut.
Twenty seconds after Quinnipiac went back to even strength, junior defenseman Davis Pennington sent the puck to freshman forward Mason Marcellus in the slot, who scored the second goal of both the night and his college career.
Due to a delayed penalty, a minute before the end of the first period Marinov was out of the net, followed by an immediate score by junior forward Collin Graf, who rejoined the team after sitting out the last two games due to an injury. The goal came just twenty seconds after the previous one, spinning it into the opponent’s net, from behind it.
“(An) unlucky play in that BC game took me out, but tonight was great and I’m glad to be back,” Graf said.
Starting the second period on the offensive thanks to the cross-checking penalty that put AIC sophomore center Timofei Khokhlachev out of the game for two minutes, Quinnipiac senior forward Travis Treloar took advantage of the power-play 32 seconds into the second period.
In the next 20 minutes, quite a number of players saw the sin-bin on both sides, as eight different penalties were called.
Quinnipiac graduate student defenseman CJ McGee and AIC graduate forward Logan Jenuwine went out at the same time. In the ensuing four-on-four, Bobcats senior defenseman Iivari Rasanen scored, once again about 20 seconds later, bringing the score up to 5-0 as the crowd went wild.
AIC senior defenseman Brian Kramer gave the Bobcats an advantage again after his penalty for tripping. It took Graf three shots to net his second of the night.
“I think the big thing tonight on the power-play was that Graf was back,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We are a different team with him for sure.”
Despite three more chances for AIC on the power-play – as sophomore forward Alex Power, senior defenseman Cooper Moore and McGee all went out for hooking, tripping and boarding respectively within four minutes of each other – the score remained unchanged.
The Bobcats on the other hand, took the five on four advantage given to them due to a hooking penalty by AIC sophomore defenseman Andrew Amousse, as Lipkin scored his second on the power play, bringing Quinnipiac’s lead to a touchdown at the end of second.
The almost full M&T Bank Arena was louder than ever and chants of “Let’s get sexy!” could be heard from the student section.
Just as it was at the beginning of the second, Quinnipiac started the final period on a power play after a last minute penalty on AIC graduate forward Blake Wells for interference.
Five more penalties were called throughout the last period – three on Quinnipiac, two on AIC – but no power-plays were successful. It wasn’t until three minutes before the final buzzer, that junior forward Cristophe Tellier brought the score to its final form of 8-0 for the Bobcats.
Tonight’s game was quite the turnaround from the scrappy 3-2 win yesterday, and for the first time in the season, the Bobcats didn’t force the game into overtime.
Graf led the team with five points, followed by Lipkin’s four and Pennington and junior forward Jacob Quillan, who each racked up three assists. Marinov noted 16 saves in the first shutout of his college career.
“Good battle on the weekend, but you know, we take the win and we move on, we wait for our next opponent,” Pecknold said. “Just everything went our way tonight and that happens sometimes.”
Quinnipiac is back in action on Oct. 20 as it travels Durham to face New Hampshire. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
