The Quinnipiac Bobcats (8-4-1, 5-1 ECAC) opened up the first game of a home and home series with the UMass Minutemen (4-8-0, 1-7 H.E.) on Friday night at the T.D. Bank Sports Center.
The first period saw opportunities for both teams early on. But it took more than halfway through the period for the puck to cross the goal line. Senior Alex Barron scored his first goal of the season on a sharp-angle wrist shot that he just squeezed between the post and the Minutemen net-minder Henry Dill’s shoulder. The Bobcats had the lead with less than five minutes remaining in the first period, but would not hold onto it for long. A holding penalty to freshman Kevin McKernan, who was making his collegiate debut for the Bobcats, put the Minutemen on the power-play. Steven Iacobellis stepped right in front of Bobcats’ junior goaltender Michael Garteig and sent home his fourth goal of the season off of a feed from Patrick Lee to tie the game.
Senior Matthew Peca saved a goal just under a minute and a half into the second period by clearing a puck that trickled under Garteig and was making its way towards the goal line. With 12:45 remaining in the second, Frank Vatrano sent a one-timer feed from Ray Pigozzi past Garteig to put the Minutemen up 2-1.
Troy Power extended the Minutemen’s lead to 3-1 just 44 seconds into the third period. UMass continued its dominance over the Bobcats for almost all of the remainder of the game.
Barron buried his second goal of the game with about a minute and a half remaining in the third period to bring the Bobcats within a goal.
Quinnipiac’s head coach, Rand Pecknold, pulled Garteig in favor of the extra skater and the Bobcats swarmed the Minutemen’s zone for the remainder of the game but could not get the tying goal.
“Dill had a good game, and certainly he made some pretty good saves there,” Minutemen Head Coach John Micheletto said. “No question that’s good to see from him.”
The Bobcats outshot the Minutemen 39-26, but the Minutemen also blocked an additional 22 shots from the Bobcats. The Bobcats went 0 for 6 on the power-play.
“I thought UMass played good, they battled and played with a lot of passion,” Pecknold said. “We need to play better. It’s been an interesting year, I know we’re 5 and 1 in the league but we haven’t played that well. We’ve just found ways to win, our luck ran out tonight which eventually is going to happen.”
Overall, the Bobcats drop to 8-4-1 while the Minutemen improve to 4-8-0. The two teams meet again Saturday night in the second and final meeting of the season at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.
