It’s been twelve years since the Quinnipiac Bobcats (13-15-4, 8-10-2 ECAC Hockey) failed to play their opening round series at home in the ECAC Hockey postseason tournament.
They clearly weren’t ready to end that streak just yet, as they hammered Rensselaer (5-23-4 overall, 4-14-2 ECAC Hockey), 4-1.
Trailing Colgate, Dartmouth, Princeton, and crosstown-rival Yale in the standings for the last four spots to secure home-ice, the Bobcats had their backs pinned against the wall on Saturday, as a loss would have potentially sealed their fate as the ninth seed and the visiting team in a first-round conference playoff matchup. A win against Rensselaer however, would have kept them right in the hunt for a coveted top-eight seed heading into the playoffs.
“We’re fighting for home ice right now. We need to get back to our identity; blocking shots and doing the little things right that we have to do to win games,” Bobcat Scott Davidson said on the playoff race.
Quinnipiac didn’t waste much time, as Craig Martin danced with the puck at the top of the right faceoff circle and sent a whizzing slap shot past RPI freshman Linden Marshall.
One of the Bobcats’ Achilles heels this season has been their inability to continue applying pressure after snagging an early lead, and it looked as though it was about to bite them yet again as Donovan Ott latched onto a puck and had only Keith Petruzzelli to beat, but couldn’t convert. After sustaining the sudden scare, the Bobcats held tight and went into the intermission with a 1-0 lead.
Tempers began to flare about halfway through the second period when Rensselaer captain Jared Wilson sent a defenseless Nick Jermain into the boards from behind. Wilson’s two-minute minor penalty was overturned to a five-minute major, giving the Bobcats a perfect opportunity to put the game out of reach. They did just that, as Scott Davidson and Brandon Fortunato both got in on the goal scoring party.
“We had the ‘all-you-can-eat’ power play. We talked about it on the bench, and we said ‘Let’s not just get one, let’s get a couple. That was the third unit we put out there, and Matt Forchuk made a big-time play over to [Scott Davidson] who hammered a [one-timer],” Pecknold explained about Davidson’s game-winning goal.
One of the unsung heroes from tonight’s game was freshman goalie Keith Petruzzelli, who flashed his leather play after play to keep the Engineers scoreless through forty minutes. Though the Engineers were able to pull one back in the third due to a scramble in front of the net, Petruzzelli’s 21 saves on 22 shots helped the Bobcats cruise to the finish line without breaking a sweat. Petruzzelli’s stellar play, combined with Bo Pieper’s late Senior Night goal, helped the Bobcats lock down a 4-1 victory and creep closer to clinching a first-round home series.
“I thought we played really well tonight. I thought it was a good win on Senior Night. Those seniors have done a lot for us over the past four years, it was nice to get a win for them,” Pecknold said. “But it was a great effort. I thought Keith was great in net, the power play had three goals, and I thought we were disciplined, played hard, and had a lot of passion.”
The final two regular season games for the Bobcats will be against opponents of completely opposite calibers, yet they will hold just the same amount of weight in the conference standings. They pay visits to St. Lawrence, the bottom-dwellers of ECAC Hockey, and Clarkson, the seventh-ranked team in the country.
Quinnipiac’s game with St. Lawrence is set to begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 23 at Appleton Arena in Canton, N.Y.
