CAMBRIDGE, MA. – Coming off an undefeated weekend against No. 7 Minnesota Duluth would set some teams up for a letdown performance. Just the opposite occurred in Cambridge Friday night as No. 6 Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey blew the doors off of Harvard 8-0. 

“Those games (Minnesota-Duluth) were very different,” head coach Cass Turner said. “They’re all hard to win, and you have to win in different ways. I think our team has done such a nice job with that this year.” 

The Bobcats showed that versatility all night, reaching into their bag of tricks and coming out with seven different players lighting the lamp. That kind of scoring depth isn’t a foreign concept for Quinnipiac this season. It’s something it expects. 

“In any given game, you look to your left, you look to your right and you know that it could be any one of you that scores,” Turner said. “I think that’s an amazing thing for a team.”

Quinnipiac was doing a whole lot of looking in that first period, exploding for four goals right out of the gate, and making sure that there was no room for a letdown performance. 

The first forward line was fittingly first to open the scoring, with freshman Kahlen Lamarche forcing a turnover on the Crimson end and feeding the puck to sophomore Madison Chantler. The London, Ontario native’s initial shot was blocked by junior goaltender Alex Pellicci, but Chantler collected the rebound and lifted it up-and-over for the goal. 

Graduate defender Kate Reilly was next in line. Reilly received a perfect cross-ice pass from senior defender Kendall Cooper, one-timing a shot that blazed past Pellicci and into the net. 

“Our forwards definitely make it look easy, and a couple of our (defenders)” Reilly told ESPN+. “But we’re definitely working for it.” 

Cooper followed up the assist to Reilly with a goal of her own just five minutes later. Pellicci couldn’t reel in senior defender Maddy Samoskevich’s one-timer, allowing the puck to find Cooper, who blasted it into an empty right side of the net. 

Turner was impressed with how the defenders contributed to creating the early lead. 

“They were in on a number of those goals, they’re creating offense, they’re so dynamic and they’re hard to defend,” Turner said. “It was nice to see them be able to create for us.” 

Sophomore forward Emerson Jarvis wasn’t content with just three goals for the opening period. With 16 seconds remaining, she crashed the net and cleaned up another rebound to extend the lead to four. 

Despite the four goals, the Bobcats felt like the Crimson were hanging tough. 

“They pressured us really hard, they certainly made us uncomfortable,” Turner told ESPN+. “Once we got that first goal I think we eased up a little bit, and gained a little bit of confidence.” 

The second frame started just like the first ended, with Quinnipiac lighting the lamp. This time it was junior forward Maya Labad, who snuck past the Harvard defense and went five-hole on Pellicci to push the lead to five. 

Labad’s goal seemed to wake up the Crimson, even if the Bobcats may have fallen asleep at the wheel with the large lead. Harvard generated multiple turnovers, leading to breakaways but —- like most times an opposing player comes across graduate goaltender Logan Angers —-  found little success. 

“Logan saved us like she always does,” Turner said. “There were a number of breakaways and opportunities that we’d like to find ways to be more disciplined, but it’s hard when you’re in games like that at times.” 

Quinnipiac eventually woke up in the closing minutes of the period. Graduate forward Jess Schryver dropped the puck off to senior forward Nina Steigauf, who went bar-down on Pellicci to stretch the lead to six. 

With a six-goal lead, the Bobcats came out for the third on mop-up duty, but evidently didn’t have their fill of goals. Reilly found the puck on the power play and buried it past a diving Pellicci for her second goal of the night coming on the man advantage. 

“Our power play was outstanding,” Turner said. “Power play is one of those things that sometimes you see yourself scoring and sometimes you’re not. Today was no different.” 

Graduate forward Julia Nearis wrapped things up a few minutes later, scoring the two-point conversion after sneaking the puck into the right post, putting Quinnipiac up eight before the final horn sounded. 

Friday night made it clear, it could be a top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth or it could be a three-win Harvard, the Bobcats try to attack every game the same. 

“I don’t know if it matters what game we’re playing,” Turner said. “We’ve got to figure out how to play our best hockey on both sides of the puck.” 

Quinnipiac will now head to New Hampshire to take on Dartmouth Saturday with puck drop scheduled for 4 p.m.