FAIRFIELD — For the 16th time in a row, Quinnipiac men’s hockey notched a win over the school down the road, beating Yale 6-2 in the consolation game of the CT Ice Tournament Saturday.
It was also Quinnipiac’s first ever appearance in said consolation game in the five years of the tournament.
“It was hard today,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “I thought our first and third were good, our second was poor. But we found a way to dig in a little bit. Obviously we’re disappointed not being in the championship game, not winning a trophy this week.”
Following a buzzer beater loss to UConn yesterday in the semis, the Bobcats started off strong when junior forward Jeremy Wilmer opened the score on the power play merely three minutes into the first period.
“I thought our power play was excellent,” Pecknold said. “Good puck, we got a lot of good IQ guys out there on both units, and they did a really good job of winning battles.”
And both teams had quite the chance to show off their power play units tonight — as they tied with 16 penalty minutes each.
Putting it simply, over half of the game (or 32 minutes) was not played 5-on-5.
That turned out to be rather favorable for the Bobcats, not only on their one-man advantage but on the penalty kill as well, when freshman center Chris Pelosi netted a shorthanded goal — upping the score 2-0.
“(Penalty kill) was great,” Pecknold said. “First month of the season, we struggled a bit. It’s been really good for the most part.”
Not to be left out from the power play scoring wagon, graduate student forward Travis Treloar sniped a shot from freshman forward Aaron Schwartz to give Quinnipiac the 3-0 advantage.
The Bulldogs didn’t let that go unanswered for long when freshman forward Ronan O’Donnell scored the first even strength goal of the game when a puck ricocheted off of Quinnipiac freshman defenseman Elliott Groenewold’s leg right under the pads of freshman goaltender Dylan Silverstein.
And so the most eventful period of the game, the first one just to be clear, sent the Bobcats into the locker room up by two over the Bulldogs.
Unfortunately it seemed like Quinnipiac took that to mean that it won already, and all the energy had disappeared as they seemed to be solely playing not to lose.
And the Bulldogs quickly showed the Bobcats why that mentality isn’t effective — freshman forward Zachary Wagnon brought the score within one with eight left to play in second.
Alarms must’ve gone off for the Bobcats because suddenly the fire they showed in the first period returned, and sophomore forward Andon Cerbone made sure to make the game a two-goal difference 20 seconds before the end of the second period — once again on the power play.
Wilmer noted another point by notching an empty-netter with two minutes left in regulation. Freshman forward Ryan Smith scored his second collegiate goal, sniping the shot through the traffic, bringing the score to its final 6-2 form.
So the Bobcats walked off with the non-conference edition of the Battle of Whitney Avenue with their heads held high, and their record with the Bulldogs unblemished. But it’s bittersweet, as there is no trophy to take home from a consolation game.
“Obviously we don’t have a lot of room for error, we’re thinking long-term here,” Wilmer said. “We can’t afford to lose another game like (the semifinals).”
Quinnipiac is back in action Jan. 31 when it travels to Hanover, New Hampshire to face Dartmouth. Puck drop is set at 7 p.m.
