SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — It started physical and fast, both sides trading chances with voracity. Yet Saturday’s men’s hockey game between Quinnipiac and Union ended with the same result as so many before it: a Bobcats win, their seventh straight over the Garnet Chargers, this one by a score of 5-0.
“We beat a really good hockey team tonight,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “They competed hard. The score was not indicative of the game.”
The two sides remained deadlocked at zeros through the first period, but the tide swung toward the Bobcats in the latter half of the frame, momentum they used to open the floodgates in the second period.
Just over a minute in, junior forward Christophe Fillion walked down the left side and ripped a shot bar down from the faceoff dot.
Thirty-eight seconds later, graduate student defenseman CJ McGee delivered a low one-timer into the back of the net to double up the Bobcats lead.
Sophomore forward Sam Lipkin found paydirt off a rebound less than three minutes after to bring the advantage to three.
“Great line rush by Telly,” Lipkin said. “(I was the) third man in, got a rebound and kind of just buried it. It was good to score that goal.”
Quinnipiac scored more goals in that five minute stretch than Union has in a full game against the Bobcats since November 2018. In fact, it didn’t score at all on Saturday.
The Garnet Chargers pressed on the attack in the opening 20 minutes, hunting pucks and forcing turnovers with physical play that promised goalscoring that would never come.
The game was the cap to a near-perfect defensive weekend for the Bobcats, allowing just a single goal in two games behind a strong blue line and elite performances in net. Senior Vinny Duplessis made 23 saves in his shutout of Union.
“Our goalies played unreal this weekend,” senior defenseman Cooper Moore said. “We let up a couple grade-A (chances) that we’re probably not too proud of, but they bailed us out and likewise we’ll bail them out as well.”
No play is a better example of that than one Moore made in the dying seconds of the second period. A puck chipped into the zone high by Union caught him sleeping at the blue line, giving the Garnet Chargers a 2-on-1 that drew Duplessis out of position before Moore made a diving stop at the goal line.
“It was a little bit of panic mode getting beat, but I luckily recovered,” Moore said. “I was happy to bail myself out.”
The physicality defined the game on the scoresheet as well, the teams combining for 48 minutes in the sin bin on the afternoon.
“They were trying to do that, and obviously (were) giving us a lot of power plays when you’re killing that many penalties,” Pecknold said.
Each side was awarded a 10-minute misconduct, the Bobcats to sophomore defenseman Charles-Alexis Legault for arguing with an official after he was boarded and subsequently took a hooking call, but the officials only called the latter penalty.
After Legault received his verdict, the officials went back to review the play and called a five-minute major on sophomore forward Carter Korpi for boarding.
Midway through the third period, Union freshman forward Jacob Jeannette received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a late hit to the head of Quinnipiac junior defenseman Davis Pennington.
Despite nearly half of the game being played on special teams, neither side scored a power play goal, going a combined 0-10 in the contest. But at the end of the day, it didn’t make a difference for the Bobcats, who skated away with a comfortable win and weekend sweep to improve to 7-0-1 in ECAC Hockey play.
“I thought we had some bite,” Pecknold said. “I thought we responded well, we get the win and move on.”
Quinnipiac is back on home ice against LIU next Saturday before a three-week break that stretches nearly until the new year. Puck drop against the Sharks is set for 4 p.m.
