By Angelique Fiske, QBSN Publishing Editor
Last Friday a Cup; this Friday a Hat.
The No. 1 Quinnipiac men’s hockey team (23-4-4, 16-1-2 ECAC) put up three first-period goals to stifle and defeat No. 13 Yale (13-10-3, 9-9-1 ECAC), 4-2. The win in the 11th Annual Heroes Hat game brings the honor back to Hamden.
“We’re thrilled to get the Heroes Hat back. It’s something that’s special to our team,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “…. We weren’t happy when we lost it two years ago, so we’re happy to have it back in our family. It was a good win.”
And the Bobcats brought it back in dominant fashion.
The last time Quinnipiac and Yale matched up on Feb. 2 of the season, the Bulldogs put up two consecutive goals. The Bobcats quickly racked up six unanswered to win 6-2.
This time around, the Bobcats didn’t need redemption as a reason to start scoring.
Quinnipiac opened up scoring quickly when Matthew Peca (Petawawa, Ontario) gained possession on a Yale miscue in the neutral zone and took it to the net.
The Bulldogs held off Bobcat attempts until Kellen Jones (Montrose, British Columbia) stripped a Yale defender of the puck, bringing it down the ice and getting it by starting goaltender Connor Wilson.
Forty-seven seconds later, Loren Barron (Glendora, Calif.) took a shot as he fell to the ice. Wilson deflected the initial shot, but Barron had reinforcements. Freshman Travis St. Denis (Trail, British Columbia) knocked it past Wilson in the scuffle. Connor Jones (Montrose, British Columbia) and Peca earned the assists, the second on the night for Connor.
Connor eventually joined in on the Quinnipiac scoring, tacking on a fourth empty-net goal to seal the deal in the final seconds of the game. The goal was his third point of the night and his ninth goal overall.
Before the Yale goal was emptied, Wilson was pulled before the start of the second for senior Nick Marcic. He hushed all Quinnipiac offensive efforts.
Marcic’s efforts in the final seconds of the middle frame saved Yale a four-goal deficit. In 4-on-4 action, Kenny Agostino broke away from the pack, taking on Hartzell alone. As he looked up to shoot, he fumbled the puck, and Hartzell easily slid it away. Kellen then brought the puck back to Yale territory, and Marcic knocked it away to end the period.
Yale finally got on the board early in the third period when Hartzell could not contain a Jesse Root shot. Agostino avenged his miscue from the end of the second as he batted the puck in the net off a bounce for his team-leading 13th goal of the year.
Despite letting in a goal in the final frame, Hartzell walked away with 31 saves on the night. When the Bulldogs picked up momentum in the third, Hartzell sustained the Bobcats, according to Pecknold.
“Hartzy kept us in there. He’s our best player, best player in the league, and one of the best in the nation right now,” Pecknold said.
With the win, the Bobcats completed the season sweep of the Bulldogs, to the delight of Hartzell.
“We’ll definitely take it. It’s always a little more fun to sweep Yale,” he said.
Quinnipiac was welcomed on the ice by an overwhelming sea of gold in the stands and it was something that the players could not help but take into their performance.
“It’s an atmosphere that I don’t think any of us have played in and it’s impossible not to get up for anything like this,” Peca said. “We were excited. We were excited from the get-go.”
Even though the team felt the energy, it also kept its mind in the game, according to Peca.
“I think we did a good job of controlling our emotions tonight,” he said. “You don’t want to get too high in games like these and start making bad decision and trying to do too much. We knew what was at stake.”
While the crowd enjoyed its most anticipated game of the year, the players donned a surprise they have been waiting since December to show off. The Bobcats showed off new uniforms in front of the sell-out crowd. According to Pecknold, the jerseys were ready to go months ago, but the combination of superstition and an undefeated streak held off the debut.
“We had to hold on to them almost the whole year,” Pecknold said with a smile.
Regardless of the fashion, the Bobcats cap off the emotional weekend with Senior Night against Brown. The puck is set to drop at 7 p.m., and the Bobcats will honor 11 seniors before the game.
