HAMDEN — Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey did exactly what it needed to do against the Brown Bears on Friday night.
Blow. Them. Out.
Blow them out to the tune of seven unanswered goals on the visiting Brown squad.
It’s easy to forget that the No. 5 ranked Quinnipiac went to overtime against Brown in the squad’s last matchup, eking out an overtime victory 4-3 on Nov. 8.
But the Bobcat team that nearly lost to the worst team in the ECAC was nowhere to be found on the ice today. Tonight, Quinnipiac flexed its muscles right from the opening tip-off.
Six minutes into the contest, the offensive onslaught would begin. Freshman center Markus Vidicek would open up the scoring. After putting away the one-timer from senior defenseman Will Gilson’s spinning assist, the Bobcats looked to set the dominant tone early.
Initially, Brown didn’t take the early punch to the mouth, skating down the ice and immediately sending the game right back to an even score.
For a moment, it looked like the Quinnipiac was going to revert to its old ways. Fast-paced, physical play that led to high shot counts, but no follow through.
Then the scoring barrage began.
Freshman forward and Hobey Baker nominee Ethan Wyttenbach would score what would become the game-winner in the eighth minute of the first period. The Calgary Flames prospect took advantage of clumsy puckhandling by the Brown defense, going in alone on Brown’s junior goaltender Tyler Shea to get the crowd roaring.
Before a single student at M&T Bank Arena sat down, the Quinnipiac had hit the back of the net again.
Just 10 seconds after Wyttenbach’s goal, freshman center Matthew Lansing would become the third of seven first-years to score. After winning the opening faceoff and getting the puck into the offensive zone, Lansing would serve as the trailer on the play. Sophomore winger Aaron Schwartz would put the puck on his stick, and Lansing would waste no time extending the Bobcat lead to two.
“(Lansing’s) been good all season…whatever role we put him in,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “But I thought he did a nice job tonight.”
Two minutes later another Bobcat goal, this time from the stick of freshman winger Antonin Verrault, would chase Shea from the net a mere 11 minutes into the first period.
“I don’t know how everybody ranks in the country, but it’s got to be one of the best freshman classes in the country,” Pecknold said. “They make a lot of plays and it’s a big part of our success.”
The Mirabel, Quebec native’s next shot of the game would ring the relief, junior goaltender Fred Halyk, dead center in the mask. He didn’t know it yet, but it would be a difficult next 20 for the Calgary, Alberta native.
But the Bobcats weren’t finished. They would score a season-high six goals in the period.
Junior forward Mason Marcellus would find the back of the net for his second point of the game, and the 100th point of his Bobcat career, on the fifth Quinnipiac goal. Verrault would score his second just over a minute later.
The Bobcats were buzzing in the first, and the crowd reflected it.
Every big hit extracted a loud swell from the packed crowd, and the student section echoed familiar chants of “sieve” at both Shea and Halyk.
And the hits kept coming.
The rest of the period would be quiet — five unanswered goals turned out to be enough of a cushion to end the opening period — but the Bobcats were far from finished on the scoresheet.
Freshman defenseman Brady Shultz would start the second period off in the same unforgiving fashion as the first, checking a Bear right at center ice to send a simple message: the Bobcats weren’t taking their foot off the gas.
A quick goal by junior winger Andon Cerbone would put the Bobcats up seven, and a Brown unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the end of the play would give the Bobcats the man-advantage for the next two minutes.
Although they couldn’t capitalize, the subsequent energy boost from the offensive explosion, plus a quality save by junior goaltender Matej Marinov on the Bear’s sophomore winger Ben Poitras coming out of the box, proved the boost the Bobcats needed.
This time, it was junior center Matthew McGroarty scoring his first goal of the season to make it 8-1, throwing the “monkey off his back” celebration to get the crowd right back into the certified blowout.
“Hopefully the second one comes soon,” McGroarty said. “If not, we’ll just try to keep pushing and helping the team work.”
In a game like this, where the offense is the star, it’s easy to overlook the elite goaltending that kept the score so lopsided. But when a Wyttenbach double-minor put the Bobcats down a man for a four-minute stretch, Marinov truly was able to shine.
Proving why a team’s goaltender should always be its best penalty killer, Marinov made key saves down the stretch. Timely stick-checks on the Bears, as well as a play where the Nitra, Slovakia native rifled the puck down the ice himself, were the difference maker on the power play.
Quinnipiac would score its final goal of the game late in the middle period, beating the now-returned Shea for the eighth unanswered goal of the contest.
Total and complete domination.
Although the waning chants of “we want 10” from the still rowdy crowd wouldn’t be fulfilled by the end of the game, the Bobcats would spice up the closing minutes of the contest with a goalie swap. Freshman goaltender Sam Scopa would see his second game action of the season, closing out the contest for the Bobcats.
“Scopes, he does so much for our team and is always cheering us on,” McGroarty said. “He always has a smile on his face, no matter what.”
Scopa’s two saves rounded out the 20 combined-save performance by the Bobcat netminders.
It’s easy to say that this is the expectation for Quinnipiac. The Bears haven’t won a single game on the road and maintain a -1.36 average goal margin. This game is the closest thing in the ECAC to a gimme for the No.5 team in the nation.
“It’s a big thing that we go into every game and handle it like we’re playing the best team in the country, and try to play like the best team in the country.” McGroarty said.
To win in such resounding fashion, to show “buy-in” when top players like sophomore forward Chris Pelosi aren’t taking the ice — that’s the kind of tenacity you need against Yale.
The kind of tenacity that fuels a playoff run to Lake Placid and beyond.
Quinnipiac returns to the ice tomorrow for the battle of Whitney Avenue, taking on the Yale Bulldogs at home. Puck drop in Hamden is set for 7 p.m.
