CANTON, N.Y. — Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey once again succumbed to poorly timed penalties in a 4-1 loss to St. Lawrence Saturday afternoon, a mere 24 hours after penalties doomed the Bobcats in their game against Clarkson.

“In some ways, that’s one of the best games we’ve played all year, which is hard to think about,” head coach Cass Turner said.

Quinnipiac’s three periods against the No. 10 Saints more closely resembled three separate games, with each intermission marking the beginning of a completely new matchup.

After picking up five penalties in their first loss of the season Friday, the No. 5 Bobcats took the ice Saturday with the squeaky-clean intensity and unrivaled discipline that everyone — save for No. 6 Clarkson, of course — has seen all season.

Quinnipiac outshot St. Lawrence by nearly triple (14-5) in the first period, won upwards 70% of face-offs and blocked two-and-a-half times as many shots.

And despite an early goal from Saints junior forward Sarah Marchand, Bobcats graduate student center Sadie Peart found the back of the net in the waning minutes of the period to end the frame tied at one. 

The play that preceded the goal — a textbook set-up from Peart’s wingers, junior Maya Labad and freshman Kahlen Lamarche — was emblematic of the team’s offensive organization in the first period.

“The first period is one of the best ones we’ve had,” Turner said. “I think there was a lot of good things — a lot of things we can build off of.” 

But the Bobcats returned from the first intermission a wildly different team.

Although neither bench could muster a goal in the second period, the Bobcats struggled to maintain possession of the puck. Quinnipiac won a meager 25% of face-offs, and the Saints outshot the Bobcats 13-10.

Dangerous odd-man rushes — enabled by inconsistent puck-handling in the neutral zone — forced graduate student netminder Logan Angers to do goalie gymnastics in the crease throughout the second frame. 

And by the third period, any remaining semblance of consistency evaporated.

After starting the second period on the power play, Quinnipiac began the third frame with just under a minute to kill on Labad’s prior high-sticking penalty.

An interference call on Saints senior defender Kristina Bahl put Quinnipiac back on the power play some six minutes later, but a slashing call on Lamarche less than 90 seconds later cut short the Bobcats’ two-minute advantage.

And almost immediately after Bahl left the box to start St. Lawrence’s power play, she rattled a one-timer top shelf behind Angers to put the Saints up 2-1.

But this power play goal — the first the Bobcats have allowed all season — wouldn’t be the last.

Within 90 seconds, Peart was in the box for slashing. The Bobcats managed to kill off the two-minute minor, but it didn’t matter — the captain was back in the box less than a minute after getting out, this time for hooking.

And that penalty — Quinnipiac’s fourth of the game — the Bobcats couldn’t kill off. Just under a minute into the kill, Saints senior forward Anna Segedi knocked a loose rebound past Angers. 

Down by two and trying to force an unlikely overtime, the Bobcats pulled Angers from between the pipes with more than four minutes remaining. Despite putting pressure on the St. Lawrence defense and netminder for several minutes, a Saints forward pounded home a post-and-in empty-netter from the far blue line with a minute and change to play.

For the Bobcats, the third frame was simply a perfect storm of “penalties at the wrong time,” Turner said.

“And just ones we can control, which was tricky,” Turner added.

The Bobcats — who racked up nine total penalties over two road losses after entering the weekend undefeated and averaging two penalties per game — spent more than 25% of the final frame on the kill.

External factors — namely, “bus-lag” — may have contributed to the team’s uncharacteristically sloppy play, Turner said.

“This road trip is always hard,” Turner said, emphasizing the length of the six-hour, 340-mile bus ride from Hamden to upstate New York. “They’re certainly much tougher to play at home.”

With their North Country road trip wrapped, the Bobcats have six days to prepare for the start of their three-game homestand against Dartmouth, Harvard and Post in early November.

Puck drop between Quinnipiac and Dartmouth is slated for 6 p.m. on Nov. 3.