The Quinnipiac Men’s Hockey team had a pair of games this past weekend vs. MACC conference rivals Sacred Heart and Fairfield. Friday night (2/9), the team traveled to the Milford Ice Pavilion and skated to a 3-3 tie with the Sacred Heart Pioneers.
QU led the game 3-0 half way through the game only to end up allowing a tying goal to the Pioneers with 1:35 left in the third period.
Terry Harris, Jeremy Garrison and Shawn Mansoff scored for the Braves. Picking up assists on the Quinnipiac goals were Jed Holtzman (2), Jeremy Garrison, Brian Herbert, and Kevin Murray.
The Pioneer’s began their comeback with a goal from Michael Forslund with two minutes to go in the second period. Forslund scored again on a power play in the third period but it was Mike Reagan’s goal with 1:35 left that sent the game to overtime. Neither team could manage to score in the overtime period. Quinnipiac was out shot 31-26. Goalie Justin Eddy made 28 saves, while Eddy Ferhi made 23 for Sacred Heart.
On Saturday night, QU hosted Fairfield at Northford Ice Pavilion. Fairfield got the first goal on a rebound goal from Tim Viens on the power play in the first period. The Braves answered back though when Brian Herbert put a back-handed goal in on the team’s first shot of the game. Still in the first period, Fairfield got another powerplay goal during a 5 on 3 situation from Rae Metz.
Quinnipiac would again tie the score with only 1:21 left when Dennis Palaia put home a rebound on a nice setup from Ryan Olson and Chris Cerrella. That assist made Cerrella the third Quinnipiac player to achieve 100 career assists. Just last week, Cerella became Quinnipiac’s All-Time leading scorer.
Fairfield again took the lead with a goal from Aaron Cardinal just a minute into the second period. Quinnipiac would get the next two goals when Dennis Palaia scored again just 26 seconds into the third and Cerrella scored with a wrist shot top shelf to give the Braves a 4-2 lead.
Fairfield would not give up though. The Stags scored again when Steve Calderara banged home a loose rebound making it 4-4 tie. Wade Winkler’s slap shot was too hard for Fairfield goalie Craig Schnappinger to handle. Winkler’s shot created a rebound that Shawn Mansoff flipped in for the game winning goal making the final score 5-4. Schnappinger made 22 saves for Fairfield and J.C. Wells (20) and Justin Eddy (14) combined for 34 saves for QU.
The loss dropped Fairfield to 7-15-2 overall and 6-11-2 in the MACC. The Brave’s improved their record to 15-9-4 overall and 12-6-2 in the MACC. Next weekend the Braves face Canisius and Mercyhurst on the road.