HAMDEN — No, Quinnipiac men’s hockey didn’t earn its 3-2 home opening win over Penn State Saturday night at TD Garden in Boston.
Bruins anthem singer Todd Angilly just happened to perform his second Star-Spangled Banner of the day in Connecticut, following the first prior to the Bruins’ matinee against the Los Angeles Kings earlier Saturday afternoon.
But antics aside, the Bobcats’ outing against the Nittany Lions was far from Quinnipiac’s standard. In fact, it left an equally sour taste in its mouth if the outcome was a loss.
“There’s not many times I’m speechless, but I am right now,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “So we’ll take the win.”
Much of that haphazard win is credited to another familiar face from Beantown who had a bigger night than Angilly — junior left winger and Boston University transfer Jeremy Wilmer, who notched two goals in his first game donning the navy and gold.
“He’s a high-end player, for sure,” Pecknold said. “He’s got great offensive instincts, makes a lot of plays and he’s gonna get a lot better for us as the year goes.”
Wilmer was a scratch in the 2024 Frozen Four after consecutive 30+ point seasons for the Terriers, but he’s already one of Quinnipiac’s best off-season grabs.
In the opening frame, freshman right winger Aaron Schwartz snagged the puck from a scrum on the left-hand side of the goal and fired toward Wilmer at the crease, who tipped it past Nittany Lions junior goaltender Aresnii Sergeev.
The 2-0 cushion followed swiftly when three minutes later, junior defender Charlie Leddy received the puck at the point, shuffled it to graduate student defender Cooper Moore and sent it at Sergeev for junior left winger Andon Cerbone to deflect over the goal line.
Wilmer’s second of the night came on a Quinnipiac power play. Sophomore wing Mason Marcellus crossed the puck to senior defender Davis Pennington, who delivered it to Wilmer to chip into the net.
“It was nice to get a couple (goals) out of the way, but we still have more to grow,” Wilmer said.
And it couldn’t be truer. Quinnipiac had a shutout on its hands after 40 minutes, but it was not a pretty 40 minutes. By the third period, the Bobcats fell apart — and it nearly cost them the game.
Penn State capitalized on the power play that bled into the final frame thanks to senior right wing Ben Schoen and seemingly rattled sophomore goaltender Matej Marinov.
Quinnipiac was too comfortable with a three-goal lead — and it showed.
“We were just all over the map,” Pecknold said. “It’s just very chaotic. There’s a lot of panic, just a lot of turnovers, and it was a bad hockey game.”
The Bobcats had their woes taking bad penalties and making sloppy passes through the first two periods. There were no notable consequences, Marinov made sure of it.
But as a “1” appeared on the scoreboard below Penn State, Quinnipiac unraveled.
“You know, we definitely wanted to play more offense in the third,” Pecknold said. “We kind of punted a little bit, which is what we don’t want to do. So again, this is a young team and a lot of new players, and we’ll figure it out.”
Despite Penn State’s follow-up — a top-shelf wrap-around goal netted by senior left wing Danny Dzhanjev — Quinnipiac figured things out enough to scrape by its Big Ten opponent.
“No team is out of it,” Schwartz said. “Obviously, Penn State’s a really good program. I think we have to stay focused, and you know, not just sit back and let them take shots at us, we (have to) go on the offense and that’s the best way.”
If someone were to ask Pecknold point blank if Quinnipiac was buying in on Saturday, the answer would be “no.”
But ask him again come the winter, and the answer should be different.
Quinnipiac continues its non-conference campaign up north for a weekend series against Maine on Oct. 18-19. Puck drop Friday is set for 7 p.m.
