HAMDEN — The Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team made its long-awaited home debut in its fifth outing this season, edging out Providence 1-0 and improving to 4-1 Tuesday night.
It’s the first time since the 2019-20 season that the Bobcats opened with four straight road games, and just like that year, they won their fifth game in front of a home crowd.
After getting the nod in net during Quinnipiac’s first four games, graduate student goaltender Kaley Doyle took to the bench as freshman goaltender Felicia Frank got her first career collegiate start.
The Falköping, Sweden, native previously played for Brynäs IF in the SDHL, where she posted an impressive 1.80 GAA and .930 save percentage. Frank was also a member of the 2022-23 Sweden U18 National Team, who won a silver medal at the World Championships and was named Best Goaltender of the tournament.
“She played for the Swedish national team and stood on her head against Team USA,” head coach Cass Turner said. “And for her to have had games like that in her past, she has confidence in big ways.”
For Frank, earning a shutout in her first start wasn’t entirely new.
“I would say (getting a shutout) was like kind of the same feeling when I did my SDHL debut, I had the same result shutout, so it was kind of the same feelings,” Frank said.
While Frank and the defense anchored the shutout, the Bobcats had their work cut out on both ends of the ice.
Quinnipiac was faced with a 5-on-3 powerplay late in the third period after th first-line defense of the Friars, junior Cristina Cavaliere and graduate student Brooke Becker, shared the box.
When the power play changed to five-on-four, senior forward Hannah Johnson thought she had scored a shorthanded goal when she tapped in a loose puck that had slipped past Frank. After going through the celebration line the Bobcats weren’t the ones who were stunned, it was the Friars.
After deliberation between the referees, they waved the goal.
“There’s a new rule, so (the referees) were thinking a little bit around that new rule and ensuring that it didn’t apply to the situation,” Turner said.
Just 20 seconds later, with 3:31 left in the game, graduate student defender Maddy Samoskevich — starting as the first-line center —- ripped a shot past senior goaltender Hope Walinski to give the Bobcats the lead.
“We just said, ‘stay calm.’ This is our game, and we’re going to keep battling all the way through,” Samoskevich said. “Throughout the whole game, there were a lot of highs and lows but this team, I think is so confident in each other and everyone’s so positive. We just bounced back and everyone stayed calm.”
After being an offensive defender for her undergraduate years, Samoskevich has transitioned into a forward with senior Maya Labad and sophomore Kahlen Lamarche.
“In the slot, (Samoskevich) can shoot so well in that space,” Turner said. “If you think back to her goal against Duluth last year, like when she finds herself in that space with the puck, she scores, she scores a ton.”
The Bobcats will meet the Friars again next Tuesday in Providence, puck drop set for 6 p.m.
