The Quinnipiac Bobcats faced an undisciplined hockey team in the Maine Black Bears Tuesday night and used it to their advantage. The Bobcats (4-0-0) power play unit, ranked third in the nation, tallied two more goals on the man-advantage tonight—including a highlight-reel goal from junior defenseman Devon Toews.
One goal would have done the trick however, as Michael Gartieg faced and stopped all 20 shots from Maine (0-4-0) for his second straight shutout and 13th of his QU career.
“He finds a way to win,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said. “Thirteen shutouts is a huge number in a career.”
While on the power play in the second period, Toews received the pass from freshman defenseman Chase Priskie while entering the offensive zone. Toews flicked the puck up and over a Maine defender, and deposited it in the back of the net. However Priskie’s scoring night did not start there, as he netted a power play goal himself in the first period.
Priskie’s goal came on the Bobcats’ 10th shot of the power play when he wristed one up and over the shoulder of the Black Bears’ goaltender, Matt Morris, from the circle, breaking the scoreless tie in the first.
“Chase played great, that was a big time play,” Pecknold said. “He’s really worked hard to round out his game in his short time here so far.”
That was Priskie’s first goal of the year and the 10th point the Bobcats’ have gotten from a freshman this year.
“It’s a good class,” Pecknold said. “The freshmen have been really good so far, I know (Thomas) Aldworth is getting all the attention so far with all the points, but we need our whole team to contribute.”
Maine had their lone look of control in the game while on a power player after freshman forward Scott Davidson went to the box just under four minutes into the game. But the Black Bears could not get anything going and the Bobcats’ penalty kill held strong. The Bobcats used the momentum from the penalty kill to rattle off 19 shots and overwhelm the Black Bears.
“They looked faster than we did tonight” Maine head coach Red Gendron said. “If you are not generally competing like you need to, the other team will look awfully good and you will not look good.”
In a second period that was riddled with penalties for both teams, Tommy Schutt used a defensive mistake by a Maine defenseman to set up a wide-open shot from the top of the circle, that first rang left post and then found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.
The scoring did not stop there for the Bobcats. Following Toews’ goal, the Bobcats added one more from senior forward KJ Tiefenwerth for his first of the season.
The Bobcats will return to action this weekend when they face their biggest test of the season as they welcome in ninth-ranked St. Cloud for back-to-back games at the High Point Solutions Arena in Hamden.
