NEW HAVEN — The last few times Quinnipiac has found itself in the first round of a tournament, it didn’t exactly go as planned for the Bobcats’ squad. Going into Friday’s CT Ice Semifinals against Sacred Heart, facing the Pioneers for the first time since 2023, they were looking to snap that.
And they did, with a 5-1 win, meaning the Bobcats will once again play for the Connecticut Championship.
Quinnipiac came out of the gate, as they say, swinging. Not even five minutes into the first period, the Bobcats were outshooting the Pioneers 8-4. The team was looking to continue its win streak, and given how the last time they found themselves on the Yale ice went, it was clear they were determined not to let the Pioneers get any opportunity to sneak one past them.
It wasn’t long before freshman center Markus Vidicek found the back of the net, before his goal was overturned for offside.
The game didn’t stay scoreless for too long though. Senior forward Anthony Cipollone found a loose puck in front of the Pioneers’ net and tipped it in for the first official goal of the night.
The Pioneers’ didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to show they are a force to be reckoned with tonight, and their senior defenseman Mikey Adamson snuck one past Quinnipiac’s junior goaltender Dylan Silverstein, only for the goal to be once again overturned.
“I thought it was an entertaining hockey game,” Sacred Heart’s head coach C. J. Marottolo said. “I thought we played well. We made a mistake against this team, they have the talent to bury it. I think tonight Quinnipiac was the better team and they won.”
Sacred Heart didn’t see too much time in Quinnipiac’s defensive zone tonight, as constant turnovers and loose pucks let the Bobcats constantly attack. Quinnipiac outshot Sacred Heart 39 to 25 on the night.
“I was really impressed with Sacred Heart,” Quinnipiac’s head coach Rand Pecknold said. “They prepared well for us. But we were hungry and we played well.”
The second goal came from sophomore defenseman Elliot Groenewold on the power play, shooting a puck directly off of senior forward and captain Victor Czerneckianair’s faceoff win across the red line.
“It’s always nice to contribute,” Groenewold said. “Ever since we came back from break we’re on a roll.”
Two minutes later, another defender, senior Will Gilson, found a pass from junior forward Mason Marcellus and extended Quinnipiac’s lead to 3-0.
“We always need that, we always rely on them,” Pecknold said.
And it wouldn’t be a Quinnipiac game night without the star freshman winger Ethan Wyttenbach, a recent Hobey Baker Award nominee, showing off with his 14th goal of the season from the red circle.
“He finishes plays,” Pecknold said. “He’s got that ability to finish, that next level.”
It almost looked like Silverstein was going to earn his sixth career shutout, but a penalty called on Groenewold would ruin those plans.
Sacred Heart’s senior winger Reid Pabich overpowered the Quinnipiac defense to put the Pioneers’ on the board with four minutes to go in regulation. That seemed to have blown another life into the red and white team, with the attempt to pull their freshman netminder Teagen Kendrick out of the net.
It is a risky play to keep the net wide open, especially when you face an offensive team like Quinnipiac. Sacred Heart learned that very quickly, as Kendrick was out of the net for exactly three seconds, as junior forward Andon Cerbone took yet another faceoff win from Czerneckianair and sealed the game with an empty netter.
Quinnipiac will face the winner of a Yale-UConn match-up, Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
“We will see who wins and we will deal with it then,” Pecknold joked. “We are prepared for both teams.”
