The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team played to a draw against ECAC opponent the Rensselaer Engineers on Thursday, January 21 in Hamden.
“We’re not happy with the result,” Rensselaer head coach Seth Appert said. “We didn’t come here to tie.”
Eight minutes into the first period, Connor Clifton came down on a three-on-two, finding Tim Clifton who delivered a pass to Landon Smith on the back door. Smith was unable to capitalize and missed the net.
“I like the way we competed tonight,” Quinnipiac (19-1-5, 10-0-2 ECAC) head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We had 102 shot attempts.”
Nine minutes into the first period freshman Thomas Aldworth used a Rensselaer (12-7-6, 5-1-6 ECAC) defenseman as a screen and beat senior goaltender Jason Kasdorf blocker side, but the cross bar denied Aldworth of his sixth goal of the year.
Early in the second period, Rensselaer went on the power play after a hook from Soren Jonzzon. The Bobcats penalty kill held strong as the Engineers were unable to register a shot on the first power-play opportunity of the game.
With 12 minutes to go in the second period Scott Davidson took a shot for the far pad. The puck bounced off Kasdorf’s pad and found Tim Clifton’s stick, but Kasdorf was there quickly to make the chest save.
“(Kasdorf) gives us a lot of confidence,” Rensselaer senior captain Chris Bradley said.
With ten minutes remaining in the second period, Aldworth was given a pass to his forehand on the left offensive zone dot and he took the quick wrist shot, but Kasdorf raced to the far post to deny him with an excellent blocker save.
“RPI played a good road game,” said Pecknold. “Kasdorf was excellent.”
With six minutes remaining in the second period K.J. Tiefenwerth gave an outstanding saucer pass to Devon Toews to the top of the left offensive zone circle.
With three minutes remaining in the second period, there was a scrum in front of the net and Rensselaer found the first goal of the night from senior Zach Schroeder The lone assist came from sophomore Lou Nanne, which was good for his 11th of the season.
“Unfortunately on their first goal, I think it was offside, but it’s not a TV game so we can’t review it,” Pecknold said.
With seconds remaining on the clock until the second period buzzer, Travis St. Denis stole the puck in the neutral zone off an erred pass by Rensselaer freshman Meirs Moore. St. Denis was able to shield Moore from the puck and maneuver to his backhand but was denied by Kasdorf’s glove.
With 15 minutes remaining until the final buzzer, Milos Bubela’s attempted shot went wide to deflect off of senior Mark Miller and into the net for Miller’s fifth goal of the season to give Rensselaer a 2-0 lead.
The Bobcats quickly answered as Tim Clifton won the faceoff back to his right where Soren Jonzzon snapped a quick shot to the back of the net. Jonzzon cut the Engineers lead in half for his fourth goal of the season.
“I haven’t scored since Brown,” Jonzzon said. “It’s always good to chip in when you’re in there and it really brought the momentum back.”
With three minutes remaining in the game, the Bobcats headed to the power play after a slashing penalty on Rensselaer sophomore Jared Wilson. With the penalty causing an offensive zone faceoff, Pecknold elected to pull Garteig for a six-on-four advantage.
On the power play with 10 seconds remaining in the game, Connor Clifton threw the puck on the net and after attempts from Landon Smith and Tim Clifton, Anas notched his 15th goal of the season to tie the game, sending the game to overtime.
“It was just chaos in front of the net,” Anas said. “I saw the puck there and I just gave it a whack and hoped for the best.”
The Bobcats headed back on the power play with 4:46 remaining in overtime but were unable to capitalize as Rensselaer forwards DeVito and Bubela blocked attempted shots from St. Denis and Toews.
“Block shots have become an expectation within the locker room,” Appert said.
Quinnipiac will travel to Hanover, New Hampshire for another ECAC matchup against Dartmouth on January 29.
