HAMDEN — In the 50th meeting between ECAC Hockey rivals Quinnipiac and Cornell Friday night, the sides played a very different game then their low-scoring affairs of years past. In their last four meetings, there were a combined 10 goals scored between the two teams. Friday’s game had 12 goals with the Bobcats scoring more, winning the game 8-4.
“It wasn’t your typical Quinnipiac-Cornell game, it wasn’t certainly what we expected,” Pecknold said. “I thought it would be more like a 1-0 or a 2-to-1 game, but we found a way to score goals and we were resilient.”
The Bobcats’ fourth line — consisting of sophomores Alex Power and Anthony Cipollone and freshman Matthew McGroarty — got on the goal sheet once again. This time, it was McGroarty who found the back of the net for his first goal of his collegiate career and the Bobcats’ first of the game. The fourth line has scored in three of the last four games.
“I thought (McGroarty) was really good. I thought the whole line was really good,” Pecknold said. “They just play so hard and bring so much pace and it gets our lines going so I was really happy with not just Matt, but the entire line.”
Just over four minutes after McGroarty’s goal, Quinnipiac rattled off two more. The first came off the stick of junior forward Cristophe Tellier, who wrapped it around the net and past a sprawled-out Big Red junior goaltender Ian Shane.
The second came from the power play unit, where junior forward Collin Graf rocketed a one-time shot past Shane off a pass from graduate student defenseman Jayden Lee. Lee’s assist on Graf’s goal gave him the first of a career-high four points on the night.
“Yeah, (Lee) was great. He’s making plays. He’s just got a lot more confidence to shoot than last year,” Pecknold said. “I thought he had a really good year last year too. But he’s kind of stepped up with (former captain Zach) Metsa gone. He’s been great all year, not just tonight.”
Graf’s goal forced Cornell head coach Mike Schafer to pull Shane after surrendering three goals on nine shots. In came sophomore goaltender Remington Keopple for his first game action this season.
The Big Red began to slowly come back in the second period. They cut the lead down to 4-3 after two goals by freshman forward Jonathan Castagna and sophomore forward Dalton Bancroft.
Going into the third period down one goal would seemingly give momentum to the Big Red, but Lee decided that shouldn’t be the case. With 28.6 seconds left in the period, Lee danced past two defenders and roofed it past Keopple to give the Bobcats a two-goal lead going into the second intermission.
“That was a huge goal for us,” Graf said. “They were pushing hard to make it 4-3 and then to get that one before the period gave us a lot of confidence going into the third and then we were able to take over in the period.”
The third period is where Quinnipiac started to pull away, with goals courtesy of freshman Mason Marcellus, junior forward Christophe Fillion and Graf for his second of the game. The Bobcats tied their season high in goals with an 8-0 blowout of AIC on Oct. 14.
This win helped the Quinnipiac extend its winning streak to four games, having scored 24 goals in that span. For Lee, it’s the defense that has gotten the Bobcats the goals.
“I think it all starts with how detailed we are defensively,” Lee said. “We’re playing in the o-zone so I think that’s the biggest thing, we’re rewarded offensively because we’re detailed and dialed defensively.”
Quinnipiac faces off against the Colgate Raiders on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. to finish its weekend series against the upstate New York foes. In the rematch of the overtime thriller in the ECAC Semifinals, Lee knows the team is ready to play the Raiders.
“I know the boys are fired up, last year in the Whitelaw, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, so I know we’re going to be fired up and ready to go,” Lee said.
