HAMDEN — Three minutes left on the clock.
Head coach Rand Pecknold waves freshman goaltender Dylan Silverstein out of the net and sophomore forward Mason Marcellus jumps off the bench. The score is 3-2 favoring the Wildcats.
Instead of an offensive rush the game turned into six players trying to keep the puck out of an empty net.
“I thought we had some chances there,” Pecknold said. “It’s a young team, a lot of transfers and it’s a work in progress.”
Nevertheless, in a complete 180 turn from last night, Quinnipiac hockey fell to UNH 3-2 in its first regulation home loss since January 2022.
“UNH was really good tonight,” Pecknold said.
To open play five minutes in, sophomore forward Andon Cerbone headed to the box on a tripping penalty — and that was about the only interesting aspect of the period.
The Bobcats just couldn’t seem to connect on any passes and not a single one out of their nine shots on goal in the period made it past the red line.
“(Junior goaltender Jared) Whale was excellent, he (was) the best player in the game,” Pecknold said.
The real action started in the second period, when Marcellus turned over the puck in the neutral zone and UNH’s junior forward Cy Leclerc immediately capitalized by putting the Wildcats on the board.
Barely five minutes later, Wildcat sophomore forward Nick Ring took advantage of across-checking penalty on Quinnipiac freshman defenseman Braden Blace, extending UNH’s lead to two.
“We’re a little immature as a team, we need to get better,” Pecknold said. “Freshman takes a stupid penalty and they score on that … we need to grow up.”
It wasn’t until eight minutes into the third that the score changed again, when graduate student forward Travis Treloar tipped in a pass from junior forward Jeremy Wilmer on the power-play.
Twenty-six seconds later, Wildcat sophomore forward J.P. Turner answered with a goal of his own, sneaking one past Silverstein.
Despite letting three in, Silverstein recorded 30 saves, many of which resulted in roaring cheers from the slowly thinning crowd.
“He’s been solid,” Pecknold said of the freshman who got his first back-to-back starts this weekend. “He took a long time off of hockey for injuries and stuff and he’s coming back now and he’s a huge talent.”
To end the night, freshman right wing Tyler Borgula netted his fourth of the season with a little over three minutes left in regulation.
And we already know how that ended.
That is not to say Quinnipiac was without more chances, but poor passing and easy turnovers turned out to be its kryptonite.
“We need to get better,” Pecknold said.
The Bobcats will travel to Worcester, Massachusetts on Nov. 2 to face Holy Cross in their last pre-conference matchup. Puck drop set for 7 p.m.
