The Bobcats couldn’t complete the weekend sweep of No. 17 St. Cloud State as they were defeated 5-2 on Saturday in St. Cloud, Minn.
Quinnipiac (4-2-0) fell behind early in the first period when it lost the puck in the neutral zone. St. Cloud (3-4-1) went on the attack and Aaron Marvin put a rebound past goalie Dan Clarke.
Bobcat freshman Kellen Jones knotted the game at one with six minutes left in the first period on a power play. The goal was his team-leading third of the year. Zach Hansen sent the puck deep into the Huskies’ zone where Kellen’s brother Connor picked it up, turned and fired it to his brother who placed it right over the shoulder of St. Cloud keeper Dan Dunn.
Dunn recorded 29 saves on the night while Clarke finished with 17. Quinnipiac outshot St. Cloud 31-22.
Shortly after Kellen’s goal, the Huskies were on a power play of their own. Marvin picked up his second goal of the night by deflecting Drew Leblanc’s shot from the point.
Despite outshooting St. Cloud 10-3 in the first period, Quinnipiac found itself in a 2-1 deficit.
The Bobcats reacted to the deficit by playing their best defense in the second period and shut out the Huskies while outshooting them 14-10. This allowed them to tie the game at 2-2 when Loren Barron sent the puck off the boards to John Dunbar, who then found Jeremy Langlois in the slot. Langlois put the puck past Dunn to tie the game. Dunbar and Langlois picked up their first assists of the season on the play.
Quinnipiac couldn’t keep St. Cloud off the board for another period, as three more goals were too much for the Bobcats to handle. Leblanc and Brett Barta assisted Cam Reid for the first goal of the period. Another goal by Chris Hepp and then one by Jared Festler sealed the victory as the Huskies outshot the Bobcats 13-10 in the final period of play.
Ten penalties for 42 minutes was too much short-handed play for Quinnipiac as St. Cloud only had seven penalties for just 14 minutes. The Bobcats also got beaten on the draw as they lost 32 out of 55 face-offs.
The five goals surrendered by the Bobcats were the most so far this season.
