Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence each earned a point in the ECAC standings after a 1-1 tie on Friday evening.
The No. 5 nationally ranked Bobcats move to 10-1-4 (3-1-3 ECAC) with the tie while the Saints’ record goes to 5-7-1 overall (4-2-1 ECAC).
There was no score during the first period as Quinnipiac outshot St. Lawrence 16-to-4.
In the early minutes, the Bobcats were in a 2-on-1 advantage with Amanda Colin (Burnsville, Minn.) and Morgan Fritz-Ward (Mason City, Iowa), but they were unable to capitalize on the opportunity as St. Lawrence’s goaltender, Carmen MacDonald, saved the back-to-back shots. They were two of her 16 saves in the first period.
Approximately seven minutes into the second period, the Saints struck first when Rylee Smith snuck behind the Bobcats’ defense and slapped the puck just passed the diving attempt of Quinnipiac goaltender Chelsea Laden (Lakeville, Minn.) to give the Saints a 1-0 lead.
Two minutes later, after Saints forward Jacqueline Wand was penalized for holding, the Bobcats were given a power play and they responded with a goal of their own.
Taryn Baumgardt (Innisfail, Alberta) passed the puck down low to Cydney Roesler (Stittsville, Ontario), who then shipped the puck across the ice to Kelly Babstock (Mississauga, Ontario) where she nailed the one-timer past MacDonald to tie up the game at one apiece.
Babstock earned her 10th goal of the season along with the fifth assist from Roesler and the fourth from Baumgardt.
St. Lawrence was presented with a huge opportunity, having a one-player advantage in the final two minutes of the third period after a penalty by Roesler.
The Bobcats were able to hold off the Saints and force the game into overtime, but neither team could score to seal the win.
While the Bobcats were able to score on one of their two power plays, the Saints went 0-for-4 on power plays in the game. Quinnipiac head coach Rick Seeley was pleased with the team’s effort in the penalty kills.
“Well, the penalty kill has been awesome,” Seeley said. “Cydney [Roseler] battled her butt off tonight and she took a lot of hits in traffic.”
Seeley loved the way his team fought, but he knows they had many chances to win against the Saints.
“We battled hard in the last two periods and created a lot of opportunities,” Seeley said. “We struggled to finish and we played against a great goalie today, so what we got to work on is finishing.”
MacDonald’s 46 saves in the game made it a challenge for the Bobcats to finish with a win. On the other side, Laden saved 24 of 25 shots on goal.
Quinnipiac will be back at the Highpoint Solutions Arena Saturday afternoon as it hosts the No. 8 nationally ranked Clarkson University Golden Knights. The puck drops at 3 p.m.
