HAMDEN — Sixty-eight seconds. That’s how long Quinnipiac’s Friday night game remained scoreless against St. Lawrence.
Sophomore forward Mason Marcellus tipped a pass from freshman defenseman Elliott Groenewold into the net with a practiced ease, his first point of a career-high four point night — three of which, came in the first eight minutes of the game.
“I don’t remember the last time I had done that, so that was pretty cool,” Marcellus said.
So the Bobcats came out of the door swinging and continued with that sentiment — at least in the first period.
Freshman forward Chris Pelosi followed Marcellus a few minutes later, with a shot that clearly made it into the net but had to be challenged by the Bobcats to be called.
“I asked Chris and he’s like ‘It was in,’ and I asked him if he’s sure and he said ‘I think so,’” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We trust our players.”
Freshman forward Aaron Schwartz netted another point barely seven and a half minutes into the first period — which the Saints answered with a quick time-out and new goaltender in graduate student Basse.
St. Lawrence’s graduate student forward Reilly Connors almost got the score within two, but a challenge from Quinnipiac resulted in no goal — the second out of the four challenges of tonight, two of which ended up in the Bobcats’ favor.
“We just do it one review at a time,” Pecknold said. “It was a lot though, I’ve never been in a game where we had four.”
After all that excitement, the second period seemed almost boring, as neither team would let a shot through — even though the night ended with Quinnipiac having 37 shots-on-goal while St. Lawrence trailed behind with merely 17.
Freshman forward Tyler Borgula’s goal was really the only interesting thing worth mentioning.
But then Marcellus came back and upped the score to five nothing, again, 67 seconds into the third.
“I thought he was excellent,” Pecknold said. “He’s had a great year, he’s maturing and I’m really really happy with him.”
And junior forward Jeremy Wilmer did not take long to earn the Bobcats the touchdown as the score stood at 6-0, 10 minutes before the end.
Speaking of maturing though, Quinnipiac almost had a clean game, before junior defenseman Charlie Leddy headed to the box for cross-checking, with St. Lawrence’s junior forward Jan Lasak headed in there with him, resulting in a 4-4 play.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats a goal by junior forward Victor Czerneckianair was reviewed and ended up as one of the unsuccessful challenges of the night.
And as it almost looked like sophomore goaltender Matej Marinov was about to earn his third career shutout, the Saints’ senior forward Will Arquiett snuck one past the traffic in front of the net.
Fortunately for the fans in the M&T Bank Arena though, as the goal meant senior goaltender Noah Altman made an appearance on the ice — for the last minute and 50 seconds anyway.
So while the Bobcats did earn their touchdown the Friday before the Super Bowl, there was no extra point for them tonight.
“It’s always nice to score six goals at home anytime you get it,” Pecknold said. “We got a tough win with Dartmouth last week, I thought tonight we were pretty mature.”
The Bobcats will return to their den Saturday against Clarkson for a HockeyFightsCancer night. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
