The leaves on Sleeping Giant Mountain have changed colors, the days have gotten shorter, the weather has turned colder and Parents and Family Weekend has arrived—bringing along with it the home opener to the men’s ice hockey regular season.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats completed the sweep of their home and home series with the Holy Cross Crusaders Saturday, winning 4-2. Coming into the weekend ranked No. 18 in the USCHO poll, the Bobcats were expected to the control the play in the games against the unranked Crusaders. The first game was a shaky back and forth battle that Quinnipiac won 5-3. The Bobcats were the clear-cut better team Saturday at home.
Just five minutes into the game, senior captain Soren Jonzzon put the Bobcats ahead.
Holy Cross blocked Jonzzon’s first attempt at a shot, but Crusaders defender Spencer Trapp couldn’t get the puck out of the zone. Just before the blue line, Tanner MacMaster lifted Trapp’s stick, leaving the puck behind for Quinnipiac freshman Thomas Aldworth. Aldworth passed the puck to Jonzzon and he fired the puck over the blocker shoulder of Crusaders’ goalie Tommy Nixon.
The Bobcats took the one-goal lead into the second period until a defensive breakdown gave away the lead. The Crusaders were on the breakout coming through the neutral zone and sophomore defenseman Kevin McKernan pinched up to try and stop the rush.
Jonzzon slid back to cover the defensive role all the way into the Bobcats’ zone. The Crusaders worked the puck in deep and found sophomore T.J. Moore wide open in the slot for the equalizer. Jonzzon was covering Moore on the play, but gave him too much space to work with. It was a problem head coach Rand Pecknold touched on after the game.
“We actually had a forward on the guy in the slot. He did his job he just wasn’t tight enough to him. That’s one thing we have problems with, we’d be on our guy but we’d be 15 feet away from him. That’s not how we play,” Pecknold said. “We want to be on our guy a stick length away where we can jump pucks and blow things up before we have to defend so that’s something we just need to work on.”
The Bobcats regained the lead a few minutes later with Aldworth scoring his first collegiate goal. K.J. Tiefenwerth worked the puck up the sideboards and around the net for a quick wrap around chance saved by Nixon. With a few bodies in front of the net scrambling for the puck, Aldworth crashed the slot and chipped the puck over Nixon’s pads for the Bobcats’ lead.
In a game of strong offensive opportunities for the Bobcats, Aldworth stood out as a legitimate force in his first regular season home game for Quinnipiac—evident in his intensity and the one goal and two assists he had on the night.
“It’s how I’m effective,” Aldworth said. “I like to just try and use my speed as much as I can and get on the forecheck and create opportunities.”
The Bobcats then extended the lead with a powerplay goal from junior Tim Clifton. Landon Smith whipped the puck off Nixon’s pads and Clifton could not corral the bouncing rebound. Yet neither could the Crusaders’ Trapp, who misplayed the bouncing puck into his own net, giving Clifton a goal on the score sheet.
A Bobcat mishap led to a Holy Cross goal just two minutes later. Goaltender Michael Garteig went to play the puck behind the net and was caught in a second of indecision as Moore closed in on the forecheck. Garteig gave up the puck and his stick as Moore walked out in front of the net, drawing the attention of all the Bobcat defenders on the ice. Moore passed the puck to his linemate Mike Barrett who then buried it into the back of the seemingly empty net.
Quinnipiac took back a two-goal advantage later in the third period with yet another powerplay goal. Sam Anas walked the puck along the blue line, finding a shooting lane, and threw the puck at the net. It was deflected off Travis St. Denis’s stick for the deciding 4-2 final.
The power play was a strong suit for the Bobcats going two for five with 13 shots on net. A big factor in those power plays: Clifton’s strong presence screening Nixon at the top of the crease.
“Both units were moving the puck and getting shots to the net,” Clifton said. “The St. Denis and Sam [Anas] unit is pretty skilled. I think we look good. Let’s just hope we keep scoring.”
Despite Quinnipiac controlling the pace of play for the bulk of the game, the defensive lapses on the two goals were too terrible to look past, Pecknold said, and they will be a focus for him moving forward.
“The main thing I’d learned is that we need to get better,” Pecknold said. “We have some things that we need to clean up. Our defensive zone coverage was sloppy. … That’s expected; it’s early in the season.”
The Bobcats will play their next game on Oct. 15 when they host the Arizona State Sun Devils in their third game as an NCAA Division I team.
Click here for more photos from the game.
