HAMDEN — Friday the 13th is known as a metaphor for inherent, superstitious dread and the chaos that disrupts ordered life, or in simpler terms, bad luck.
And Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey got hit with the worst luck it probably had the whole season, getting shut out by the Clarkson Golden Knights 3-0 in the first game of the ECAC Quarterfinals.
“It was bad, we stunk,” head coach Rand Pecknold said.
While the Bobcats were coming off a two-week break since their last game, the Golden Knights were on a high following a close 2-1 win over RPI in the opening round of the tournament.
And they definitely carried that high all the way to Hamden, dominating the Bobcats across the entire board.
“I wanna congratulate Clarkson, thought they played hard tonight, they did an excellent job, their goalie played well,” Pecknold said. “We haven’t been dominated like that across two periods for seven or eight years.”
Across the first 40 minutes of play, Quinnipiac only managed seven shots on goal, with only two of those coming in the second period, while Clarkson was sitting at 28 at that point.
The Bobcats just couldn’t get through the Golden Knights for long enough to create any sort of opportunity, their passes didn’t connect and their attempts were squashed by Clarkson’s defense. No matter what the Bobcats tried to do, the Golden Knights were right there, playing a highly physical game that the Bobcats had no answer for.
“I think some guys didn’t wanna play hockey tonight, they thought it was gonna be easy and it wasn’t,” Pecknold said. “It just perplexes me, that we have this really good team, high character kids, and that in a home playoff game, we can be that bad.”
The only shining beacon on Quinnipiac’s side was junior goaltender Dylan Silverstein, who recorded 32 saves on the night, only letting one in after Clarkson’s freshman defender Bryce Sookro sniped a shot from the blue line for his first collegiate goal, early in the second.
“Silvi was great, kept us in the game,” Pecknold said. “Probably the best game he’s had all year.”
It definitely was, as Silverstein’s efforts were the only reason this game did not end with a double digit loss for the Bobcats.
“We just had a lot of guys who were in panic mode from the get-go, just pouty on the bench,” Pecknold said. “The best thing tonight was going into the third only down one goal, we had a chance. We’ve been great at home all year, 9-0 in white jerseys, it’s frustrating.”
And while the Bobcats showed a little bit more effort and their signature “buy-in” in the third, as Pecknold put it, “it’s hard to win games when you play 20 minute hockey, you gotta play 60.”
Despite the six power play opportunities for the Bobcats, a team that is 12th in the nation in power-play percentage, nothing seemed to be working against the Golden Knights.
“Their PK outcompeted our powerplay all night long,” Pecknold said. “We were frustrated, we made mistakes, we started pouting fingers and blaming guys instead of resetting and being good. It was an off night for sure.”
The two empty netters from the Golden Knights’ forwards sophomore Luka Sukovic and senior Erik Bargholtz just sealed the deal.
Quinnipiac is a team full of promising talent, talent that is well recognized. Freshmen forwards Ethan Wyttenbach and Antonin Verreault were just recognized as part of the All-ECAC Rookie Team. While Wyttenbach joined sophomore defender Elliot Groenewold on All-ECAC First Team and Verreault was recognized as part of the All-ECAC Second Team, with junior forward Mason Marcellus rounding out the group as All-ECAC Third team member.
These names that have been making headlines throughout the entire season, were just nowhere to be found on the ice tonight.
On the contrary, Pecknold had different names in mind for the best players on the ice tonight.
“(Freshman defender Graham Sward) and (sophomore defender Braden Blace) were men tonight, they battled,” Pecknold said. “(Sophomore forward Tyler Borgula) was really good for us coming off a layoff, I thought he was good and (senior forward Anthony Cipollone) was working hard. After that, it’s bad.”
Quinnipiac now has less than 24 hours to regroup and reset if it wants to play for that elusive ECAC title in Lake Placid, N.Y. The puck drop for Game 2 against Clarkson is at 4 p.m. Saturday, and for the first time since the 2018-19 season, Quinnipiac might miss its chance to play on the miracle ice.
“We gotta fix everything,” Pecknold said. “We have a really great team, but stuff happens. It’s kind of perplexing that we would be that bad after having such a great season.”
