HAMDEN — In a Saturday afternoon 6-2 win against No. 13 Boston University, No. 10 Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey played like it had something to prove.
After falling to the Yale Bulldogs, for the first time since 2018, and clawing out an overtime win over the Brown Bears last weekend, it certainly did.
While Quinnipiac sits in the rankings above Boston, the line-up for the Terriers can seem more than just a little intimidating, with 19 NHL draft picks — one of them Boston’s sophomore netminder Mikhail Yegorov, who despite letting six in, still recorded 43 saves on the night.
“BU is an excellent hockey team, tons of talent, really well coached,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “I’m just really happy with our guys, we fought a little bit with our buy-in but tonight was excellent. Everyone was on board and we got rewarded for it.”
Six different Bobcats had multiple points on the night with forwards junior Mason Marcellus and freshman Antonin Verreault leading the pack with three points each.
Marcellus’ first point came from the first goal of the night, when he caught a pass from sophomore forward Chris Pelosi three minutes into the first period.
“It’s pretty much just all Chris Pelosi,” Marcellus laughed. “He won the battle, outraced a few guys and fed me in the slot. Rand’s been telling me to shoot so wrapped my head right around that one.”
Quinnipiac kept up intense pressure on Boston University throughout the whole first 20 minutes, outshooting the Terriers 25 to eight on shots on goal just in the first period, and 49 to 33 on the night.
“The first thing we did was hit the net, we’ve been missing the net a lot,” Pecknold said.
Out of the 25, two more found the back of the net with senior center Victor Czerneckianair and freshman defender Nate Tivey netting their first goals of the season (and collegiate career for Tivey).
Czerneckianair’s goal was assisted by the duo of Marcellus and senior forward Jeremy Wilmer, the first out of their two assists on the night.
“I haven’t played a whole lot with Wilms but he’s the smartest player on our team, it’s not even close,” Marcellus said. “Being able to finally play with him is definitely special.”
Leading three nothing going into the second period, it could be very easy to start protecting the score, a sentiment echoed by Pecknold.
“I was a little worried to start the second, BU’s gonna reload and we’re gonna go ‘Oh this is gonna be an easy night’ and I give the guys a lot of credit,” Pecknold said. “We came out and we were good the whole game. It was a good effort.”
And it sure looked that way when the Terriers’ junior winger Jack Harvey netted a shorthanded to put Boston University on the board.
Before the game, Quinnipiac and Boston were neck and neck in the NCAA power-play rankings, No. 18 and 19 respectively, while the Terriers sat on No. 15 in penalty kill percentage with the Bobcats all the way down at No. 41.
That will definitely change after tonight, not only because of that shorthanded goal, but also because of Verreault’s response during that same power-play and another power-play goal a minute later, when freshman winger Ethan Wyttenbach sniped his sixth of the season.
Twenty four seconds later, the Terriers tried to find any way to stay in the game, when sophomore forward Nick Roukounakis — the only BU player on the ice tonight that was not drafted — sniped a shot past Quinnipiac’s junior netminder Matej Marinov for his first collegiate goal.
The Nitra, Slovakia native in the Bobcats’ net made 31 saves on the night, his highest this season so far.
“He was good, he battled,” Pecknold said. “He did a good job tonight and he had some awesome saves.”
Up 5-2 going into the third, the momentum on the ice shifted. The Terriers did not want to go home without trying their absolute best, outshooting Quinnipiac 17 to seven on shots on goal on the period.
It wasn’t a Terrier who found the back of the net for the final goal of the night though; it was Quinnipiac freshman forward Markus Vidicek who tipped the rebound in the crease after Yegorov blocked Wilmer’s shot to only solidify Quinnipiac’s win over Boston University.
Quinnipiac improves its overall record to 7-3-2 and heads back into ECAC play on a two-game win streak.
The Bobcats will be back on home ice next weekend, welcoming Clarkson and St. Lawrence, looking to improve their start to the conference. Puck drop against Clarkson is set for 7 p.m. Friday night.
