The No. 4 Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team defeated No. 13 Yale 4-0 after a 33-save shutout from Michael Garteig on Friday night. The game marks Garteig’s NCAA-leading fifth shutout of the season, which ties him for Eric Hartzell’s record last season.
“[Garteig] was great tonight,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “I thought it was one of the better games that he’s played all year.”
Cory Hibbeler broke the ice for the Bobcats midway through the opening frame. After Bryce Van Brabant won an offensive zone faceoff, Hibbeler quickly snapped a wrist shot through traffic and on net that beat goaltender Alex Lyon to the glove side.
“It’s always big to get the first goal on the road,” Hibbeler said. “That’s always the game plan.”
Sam Anas netted his team-leading 17th goal of the year just more than seven and a half minutes into the second period. Following a turnover in Yale’s defensive zone, Hibbeler managed to get the puck into the low slot area. After Travis St. Denis was denied, Anas corralled the puck and found room between Lyon’s glove and the post and fired a shot into the top corner of the net.
Eighteen seconds later, Connor Clifton added more insurance for the Bobcats. Connor Jones forced another offensive zone turnover before he slid the puck to Clifton at the blue line. Clifton faked a slapshot before changing his position and firing a low wrist shot through a screen to stretch the lead to 3-0.
Tommy Schutt capped the scoring for Quinnipiac late in the third period. After dumping the puck into the offensive zone Hibbeler pressured Lyon behind the net, stole the puck and chipped it to Schutt who shot it into a vacant net for the goal.
Pecknold wants his players to approach every game with the same level of intensity.
“I want our team to play with a chip on their shoulder against everybody,” Pecknold said. “We didn’t really even talk about the win after the game, we just talked about Brown.”
The Bobcats travel to Brown tomorrow to take on the Bears at 4 p.m.
