ITHACA, N.Y. — For the second-straight season, Quinnipiac men’s hockey left Central New York searching for answers. A Dalton Bancroft goal three minutes into overtime powered Cornell to a 3-2 win over the Bobcats Saturday, completing a weekend sweep that sank Quinnipiac to No. 8 in the Pairwise rankings.
“I thought we had a good, not great game,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We’re still taking bad penalties and we need to mature out of it. It’s costing us goals and it’s just using up a lot of energy.”
Quinnipiac took five penalties in the game, giving a struggling Big Red power play enough opportunities to convert. Cornell junior forward Ondrej Psenicka tipped home a shot from freshman defenseman George Fegaras late in a second period man advantage to put the hosts up 2-1.
That goal came just 29 seconds after the Bobcats broke free to tie the game shorthanded. Graduate student defenseman CJ McGee forced the puck out at the defensive blue line and chased it down the ice, where he teed up graduate student forward Zach Tupker for a one-time blast against his former team.
Quinnipiac equalized for a second time in the waning minutes of the second period. For the second-straight night, fourth-line sophomore Alex Power was the Bobcat to answer the bell. Skating in on a penalty shot after a scramble in the crease led to a Cornell defenseman covering the puck, Power picked his mark and beat Big Red junior Ian Shane glove side.
The Bobcats outshot Cornell 13-3 in the second period, showcasing a level of energy and composure that was missing for the majority of the weekend.
“That was our best period,” Pecknold said. “I thought we were battling, won more battles and got into more battles, won races.”
The Big Red turned the tide in the third period, winning the shot battle 9-3, but neither side found the back of the net, setting up the eighth overtime of the season for Quinnipiac.
And like six of their seven other trips to the extra frame this season, the Bobcats left the ice winless. Bancroft’s tally, his second of the night, extended Quinnipiac’s losing streak at Lynah Rink to four, dating back to 2019.
“The buy-in, it’s good, it’s not great,” Pecknold said. “If you want to beat teams like Cornell … that’s a top ten team in the country … we just need a little bit more.”
So Quinnipiac skated off the ice under rousing cries of “Overrated!” from the Lynah faithful, once again trying to piece together what went wrong in Ithaca and Hamilton.
“We just have to grow up, we have to mature,” Pecknold said.
The Bobcats will have less than a week to take the first step in that direction, back in The Nutmeg State next Friday and Saturday to defend their Connecticut Ice Tournament title. This year’s tournament, hosted by UConn, will be held at the XL Center in Hartford.
Quinnipiac faces rival Yale in the opening round of the tournament Friday at 7 p.m. UConn and Sacred Heart play at 4 p.m.
