The Robert Morris Colonials (19-3-2, 8-1-1 CHA) defeated the Quinnipiac Bobcats (16-4-6, 7-3-4 ECAC) 5-1 thanks to Rebecca Vint’s four-point performance Saturday afternoon.
Much like the beginning of yesterday’s matchup between the two teams, defense would again be the main part of the first period. Play was mostly back and forth, with neither team able to create sustained offensive pressure. Both the Bobcats and Colonials had two power-play opportunities, but had nothing to show for them.
The Bobcats started the second period with almost a full two minutes of power-play time, but the man advantage would find the favor of Robert Morris. Just 20 seconds into the period, Rebecca Vint scored a shorthanded goal for her 100th career point, giving Robert Morris the 1-0 lead, which they did not relinquish the rest of the afternoon. Vint carried the puck from the neutral zone, untouched, where she fired a shot that was blocked by the Quinnipiac defense, picked up the rebound and put it into the wide open net with Laden down anticipating the first shot.
“I thought that bad shorthanded goal deflated us, and the rest is obvious,” head coach Rick Seeley said.
Rikki Meilleur would give the Colonials the 2-0 advantage at the 12:15 mark of the second period. Ashley Vesci fired an initial shot that Chelsea Laden stopped high, but then dropped and was swept home by Meilleur on the doorstep. Just over two minutes later, Vint would score her second of the game on the power-play increasing the Robert Morris lead to 3-0.
With Robert Morris on the power-play once again a minute later, thanks to stellar passing in the zone, Vint slithered the puck to Anneline Lauziere who then wristed it home, giving Robert Morris their second power-play tally and the 4-0 lead. Laden was pulled following the fourth goal and Sydney Rossman played the rest of the period with four minutes to go.
“We gave up too many weak goals, and I don’t think our team responded well either,” Seeley said. “I thought we lost our discipline, we started taking some bad penalties and we lost our focus.”
Quinnipiac would score their only goal 1:34 into the third period thanks to a fortunate deflection from a Shelby Wignall shot. Wignall threw a weak shot from the blue line that deflected off a Colonials defender and bounced between Jessica Dodd’s pads. Robert Morris would score their sixth and final goal of the afternoon after Thea Imbrogno caught a Vint pass at the 15:39 mark of the third period and cruised into the Bobcats zone alone and beat Rossman five hole.
Penalty killing was stellar for Robert Morris, killing off all eight Quinnipiac opportunities, where the Bobcats went 2-7 on the penalty kill. Quinnipiac is back in action when they host Dartmouth on Jan. 31 at the High Point Solutions Arena for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
