It was a weekend stand before a twenty-day layoff for the Quinnipiac men’s hockey team (10-5-1, 6-2-0 ECAC). Friday night brought a 2-1 overtime win against the Dartmouth Big Green (4-4-1, 2-4-1 ECAC), while Saturday’s match ended in a 5-2 Harvard Crimson (9-1-2, 5-1-2 ECAC) victory.
This was the third weekend sweep for the Bobcats in as many weeks, with their last sweep on the road at Union and RPI on Nov. 14 and 15.
“Each weekend’s different in what we’re doing, when we’re playing well and not playing well,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “Surely you want a sweep, but again, I go back to we’re a young hockey team.”
The team started the season 1-2-1, with their first month of play against Hockey East opponents. Once the conference schedule began, the Bobcats rebounded and ended the first half of the season 10-5-1, with a 6-2-0 record against ECAC opponents.
Senior co-captain Matthew Peca sees the first half of the season as a learning experience, especially for some younger members of the team.
“We’re obviously excited, because we know we can be a lot better,” Peca said. “I thought we had a good first half, a little bit of a roller coaster like I said, we were sporadic in our effort and our commitment to detail.”
“I thought we had a good first half, 6-2 in our league,” Peca said of the squad, now tied for first in the ECAC standings, “but you know obviously there’s a lot of hockey to be played.”
Friday night’s matchup featured a strong unranked opponent in Dartmouth. The Big Green came in as an upperclassmen heavy squad with no hesitation against ranked opponents; fresh off of an upset of then no. 1 Boston University.
The game was scoreless for a period and a half, until Tyler Sikura was able to knock in a puck that junior goaltender Michael Garteig tried to knock away with his blocker. The goal was reviewed for a high stick, but ruled a good goal.
“I thought it was a high stick, I still think it’s a high stick,” Garteig said. “But there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Quinnipiac would tie the game three minutes into the period on freshman Landon Smith’s seventh of the season. His nifty move around the defenseman allowed him to get the rolling puck flat, giving him the clean shot that went past Dartmouth netminder James Kruger.
“It was just a matter of throwing pucks at his feet, creating rebounds so we don’t necessarily score a pretty goal,” junior forward Soren Jonzzon said. “But Landon’s shot was pretty unbelievable.”
It would take overtime to decide this game. Freshman Bo Pieper walked into the zone and got a clear shot off from the point, which was deflected in front by the screening Jonzzon for his fourth goal of the year.
One issue the team saw in the game was a lack of consistency in the pace and intensity of play, to which Pecknold said was like having three different games each period.
“First period, second period, third period, we’re all over the map with our intensity and our compete and I think you saw that tonight,” Pecknold said. “We gotta find a way to mature and figure out how to bottle this, and come out and play 60 minutes each night.”
Saturday night, the team squared off against no. 9 Harvard, a team Pecknold had high praise for.
“They beat the number one team in the country last week, they beat the number four team in the country, they’ve got one loss, they should be one. I voted for them one, they should be one, two or three,” Pecknold said. “I think Harvard’s outstanding. I think they’re the best team in our league.”
Harvard came out quickly, scoring just 16 seconds into the game. From the face off, the puck was taken in to the far boards in their offensive zone. Sophomore defenseman Connor Clifton went in but missed the play, allowing Kyle Criscuolo a clear chance on Garteig.
The Crimson would put up four more, including an empty net goal, against the Bobcats to tie them with 12 points atop the ECAC.
Quinnipiac also struggled with penalties against Harvard, getting called for eight infractions against a team with the nation’s best power play. It’s something Peca felt hurt the team.
“Penalties– we took too many tonight. Penalties will happen, but we took some stupid penalties tonight,” Peca said. “Some in the offensive zone we didn’t need to take, and when their power play is at 30 percent you don’t wanna be giving them chances.”
For the second time this season, the Bobcats were able to put more than 40 shots on an opposing goaltender. Unlike his Cornell counterpart, Harvard’s Michalek only allowed one goal.
“If a goalie gets 45 shots and only lets in one it’s a good tell if he’s seeing pucks or not. It’s something we’ve been sporadic at all year,” Peca said. “Some games we’re good at screening goalies, some games we’re not and tonight was not one of them.”
The team still feels optimistic about the rest of conference play and the rest of the season to come in 2015.
“I think we’ll be a better team in February and that’s the plan,” Pecknold said. “For what we have, for how young we are to have the record overall and in the ECAC is pretty good for where we are right now. We have to step back and be happy with that.”
The Bobcats are off until Dec. 27 and 28 when they play a home and home series against the Princeton Tigers.
