The Quinnipiac Bobcats (7-3-1, 3-1-0 ECAC) took on the Harvard Crimson (4-1-1, 2-1-1 ECAC) to complete their third weekend of conference play.
The Bobcats got off to an early start with defenseman Brogan Rafferty netting his second goal of the year on the power play less than two minutes into the first period. The puck bounced around in the slot and fell to Rafferty on the point, who fired a shot over the pad of Harvard goaltender Merrick Madsen.
Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold was pleased with the way the power play performed this weekend.
“We’ve figured it all out and it’s been good,” Pecknold said. “We were a little more organized, our retrievals were better and our breakout was better.”
Harvard answered back with a goal by Viktor Dombrovskiy. The Crimson had the puck behind the Quinnipiac goal and Alexander Kerfoot had all six Bobcats guessing the wrong way as he delivered a pass to Dombrovskiy, who one-timed the puck home to tie the game at 1-1.
Harvard outshot Quinnipiac 13-7 in the first period after the Bobcats had put up 16 shots in the first period against Dartmouth the night before.
It was Harvard who got out to an early start in the second period with Sean Malone giving the Crimson a 2-1 lead just 24 seconds into the middle frame. The Bobcats’ defense opened up as Malone picked up the puck in the slot and slipped it in between Quinnipiac goaltender Chris Truehl’s legs on a rebound attempt.
Shortly after a Harvard power play opportunity ended, Craig Martin fired a shot glove side on Madsen knotting the game at two with 7:22 left in the second period. The puck squeezed through over the left pad and under the glove of Madsen, the second time a goal of that fashion scored.
Coach Pecknold was impressed with Martin’s play and how he’s embraced his role this year.
“I think a lot of guys have embraced it, like Craig Martin was kind of in and out of the lineup for us last year I thought he was really good for us and we were that good; we couldn’t get him in at times,” Pecknold said. “We got him in the Frozen Four, I think he played one out of two but he’s been excellent; he’s up on the first line and he’s killing penalties and on the power play.”
With 2:43 left in the second period, Luke Shiplo found himself alone in the slot. He toe dragged and fired the puck into the net past the low glove side of Madsen to give Quinnipiac a 3-2 lead. Shiplo gave credit to teammate Andrew Taverner saying that it was a great pass to find him in the slot.
“Almost had a pretty bad dump there and I just got it back and threw it down to Taverner, made a great pass in the slot and it went in,” Shiplo said. “It was a really nice pass by Tavs [Taverner].”
Quinnipiac took a 3-2 lead into the dressing room after two periods with Harvard outshooting the Bobcats 26-16.
In the third period, each team had numerous power play opportunities. However, neither unit was able to convert on the man advantage.
Harvard had a late power play opportunity with 2:44 left in the game. The Crimson had good puck movement on the power play, but did not carve out any real danger for Quinnipiac’s defense. With 24.8 seconds left, Tommy Schutt beat a Harvard defender to the puck on the red line, dove and smacked the puck into the empty Crimson net giving the Bobcats a 4-2 lead.
Quinnipiac would hold on to win the game, sweeping the weekend and coming away with four points.
“It’s four points,” Pecknold said. “You’ve got to get four points right, so it’s great. The guys are fired up in there, they’re very accountable they know we didn’t have our best effort but good teams find ways to win when they have down nights so we’re excited; Harvard is a great team, you know that’s definitely a top ten team in the country, that’s an excellent hockey team.”
The Bobcats will be looking to improve on their 3-1-0 in-conference record next weekend as they travel to Cornell on Nov. 18 and Colgate the day after.
