HAMDEN — As Quinnipiac men’s hockey head coach Rand Pecknold put it Friday night after a horrendous 4-2 loss to Dartmouth, “It’s like a broken record.”
The Bobcats came into Saturday’s matchup against Harvard desperate for a win. Well, that didn’t happen. And so Quinnipiac fell for the second consecutive game, 3-0.
“We’re struggling a little bit right now,” Pecknold said. “Confidence wasn’t there. Frustrating, frustrating weekend, so get back after it next weekend and we got to get better.”
A new(ish) look
To preface, the camo jerseys are not the new look. However, Quinnipiac’s starting lines definitely looked different.
Sophomore goaltender Matej Marinov earned the nod — his first start since Oct. 25 against UNH — splitting the weekend with freshman goaltender Dylan Silverstein who was between the pipes last night.
Not shocking and also not the new look.
Pairing junior wing Jeremy Wilmer and freshman wing Aaron Schwartz with freshman center Chris Pelosi on the second line is.
Instead, the Bobcats’ first line had graduate student center Travis Treloar sandwiched between sophomore wings Mason Marcellus and Andon Cerbone. Additionally, freshman wing Tyler Borgula — who has been the No. 2 most productive forward this season — went to the third line.
Behind the blue line, graduate student Cooper Moore was marked the seventh defenseman of the evening.
These changes are more observational than anything, but weaving players in and out of lines most likely means a team is testing for the best fit going forward. Eyeing that 3-5 record, it’s not unusual to switch things up if something isn’t working — a theme that will likely continue into next weekend.
Settle down
Don’t try and do so much, play the game. Quinnipiac has struggled with that sentiment through its first seven games, and it surely bled into its eighth on Saturday.
“(Harvard was) committed,” Pecknold said. “You know, that was a playoff game for them.”
The broken record is begging to be fixed — unforced turnovers, failed connections and silent power plays continue to sink the Bobcats.
Almost any time Quinnipiac had an opportunity, it killed its own momentum — a pass goes awry and straight into Harvard’s possession, a breakaway ends because the puck is mishandled.
Teams haven’t been beating the Bobcats, they’ve been losing to themselves.
The penalty kill is another story. A pair of Harvard’s goals came on the man advantage. Easy clears became sudden turnovers, forcing an on-edge Marinov — who was solid despite the outcome — out of the crease and into unfamiliar territory.
“I thought we kind of hung him out to dry on both goals on the penalty kill,” Pecknold said. “Bad rotations, bad sticks so we got to get better with that. He made a couple huge breakaway saves.”
Through 2022-23, the Bobcats had one of the strongest penalty kills in the country. Two seasons later, it’s one of their biggest faults.
“(Harvard junior goaltender Aku Koskenvuo) made some saves, made some pretty good chances,” Pecknold said. “We had some good looks, and we just didn’t finish.”
Finish the job
Oh, the power play. 0-for-4 on the night doesn’t sit too well.
When a team has a leg up, it has to command the game. But even with a fifth skater on the ice for Quinnipiac, Harvard managed one too many clears with just four.
Not to mention when the Bobcats were at full strength, they still couldn’t connect at the goal line. The Crimson’s defense was impenetrable.
A 2-on-1 breakaway in the third frame between Marcellus and Schwartz and Koskenvuo ended in sheer disappointment, as did any other golden opportunity the Bobcats had in three periods.
Things are bleak for Quinnipiac at the moment. Pecknold has said it once, and he’ll say it again: the buy-in isn’t there.
“There’s (teams) in this league that go four years without beating us,” Pecknold said. “We need to understand that. We have to match that passion, we need to get better.”
Being 0-2 in the ECAC is a rarity when it’s next to Quinnipiac’s name. But that’s reality, and the Bobcats have until Nov. 15 at Brown to figure out the next step. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
