The No. 3 seeded Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s ice hockey team (25-7-3, 16-5-2 ECAC) kicked off the ECAC quarterfinals earlier today with a 7-0 win at home against the No. 6 seeded Princeton Tigers (15-13-2, 13-9-1 ECAC).
This was the first game in a best-of-three series between the Bobcats and Tigers, and Quinnipiac took control from the get-go. The Bobcats were the aggressor from the initial puck-drop, and were ultimately too much for Princeton to handle.
“I’m really happy with how we played,” Quinnipiac head coach Rick Seeley said. “It was a complete group effort and it’s been a while since we had one of those. Everyone played totally selflessly and as a result created lots of great opportunities, and we capitalized today.”
The Bobcats distributed 44 shots among 15 players, and six of those players scored, including a 2-goal performance from freshman Taylar Cianfarano, which is a tie for most goals in a playoff game by a Bobcat.
Sophomore Emma Woods netted the first goal just six minutes in to the game, and the floodgates opened from there. Not even three minutes later, Cianfarano scored her first goal of the day to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead.
A little over six minutes later junior Lindsey West threw the puck on net from the left point, and it went straight over Princeton’s Kimberly Newell’s left shoulder. Sophomore forward Meghan Turner screened Newell, preventing her from seeing the puck, and just like that the lead was extended to 3-0.
But the Bobcats weren’t done and a minute later junior Nicole Kosta slung a pass in front of the net to senior Erica Uden Johansson, who found the back of the net for a 4-0 Quinnipiac lead, and her tenth goal of the season.
Quinnipiac’s four first period goals equal the total amount of goals they have scored in the last four games combined. They outshot the Tigers 16-6 in the first period, and picked up right where they left off at the beginning of the second period.
Not even 4 minutes in the period had gone by, and Cianfarano weaved in and out of Princeton’s defense for her second goal of the game, and a 5-0 Quinnipiac lead.
Princeton didn’t surrender any more goals in the period, but Quinnipiac was still dominating the puck. The Bobcats owned the time on attack, and outshot the Tigers 17-2 in the second period alone.
Senior Shiann Darkangelo scored about seven minutes into the third period to increase the lead to 6-0, but the scoring stalled until the final minute. Junior Nicole Connery skated through the slot and flipped a backhand shot that snuck under the Newell’s glove to give the Bobcats a 7-0 lead, which would stand as the final score.
This was the Bobcats’ largest regular season shutout since they beat RIT 8-0 on Nov. 29, 2013. It was also senior goalie’s Chelsea Laden’s fifteenth shutout of the season, who now holds the ECAC record for shutouts in a season.
“I could never have imagined that we would be saying that if we were to rewind to the beginning of the season,” Laden said. “Fifteen [shutouts] is definitely a lot and it shows how much this program has grown and how awesome my team is.”
The Bobcats will look to end the quarterfinal series tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. when they host Princeton for game 2 in this ECAC quarterfinal matchup.
