The Quinnipiac Bobcats battled back from three separate one-goal deficits on Friday but could not come back from a fourth as they fell 5-3 to the Princeton Tigers in the first leg of the home-and-home series.
With 4:05 to play in the final period after a hard-fought third period from Princeton (4-7-1, 2-6-1), the Tigers’ efforts finally got rewarded when Matt Nelson struck for a goal giving them a 4-3 lead.
Quinnipiac (10-6-2, 6-3-1) would then pull the goalie while on the power play with under three minutes to play. The Bobcats put strong pressure on the net and had a few good looks, but could not find the back of the net; a common theme for the night.
“I thought Princeton was really good tonight. I thought they deserved the win. We struggled in a lot of areas,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said after the loss. “We weren’t mentally ready to play tonight and then we played with panic all night. A disappointing effort on our part, but you have to give credit to Princeton, they were ready to go.”
The Tigers struck first when Alex Riche rifled one off the pad of Bobcats’ goalie Chris Truehl, who made the initial save until Ryan Kuffner put home the rebound to push the Tigers out in front just a little over five minutes into the first period.
The Bobcats tied the game a little more than three minutes later when they struck on the power play.
After winning the face-off, Quinnipiac never let the puck leave the offensive zone.
With strong puck movement, Kevin McKernan played the puck over to Landon Smith who played it down to Kevin Duane. Duane looked for the pass across the crease but it was cut off and the puck found its way back onto Duane’s stick. This time, Duane didn’t bother looking for the pass and shot the puck which found the back of the net for his second goal of the season and his second goal in as many games.
Truehl, who was the Bobcats’ strong point the entire night, continued to make strong saves during what seemed like every Princeton offensive possession. The goaltender finished the night with 24 saves in a valiant effort to keep the game close.
After the teams traded goals in the first half of the second period, Riche struck for the Tigers and sent Quinnipiac into the second intermission trailing 3-2.
The Bobcats were quick to respond, coming out of the locker room in the third period and peppering Tigers’ goalie Colton Phinney. They quickly tied the game up when Thomas Aldworth looked as if he was going to do a complete wrap-around shot behind Phinney. However, Aldworth threw on the brakes and snuck one in front of Phinney. After a scrum in front of the net and a lucky bounce the game was tied at 3 goals apiece.
“There were times, there were spurts, but we had a fail clear, we had to stay in the zone. It was just a whole host of things,” Pecknold said. “There were too many breakaways tonight. Poor mental prep for the game, and then we knew we weren’t good and we were in panic mode the whole night.”
After the Nelson goal gave the Tigers the lead, Eric Robinson rifled one from center ice to give Princeton a 5-3 cushion with 15 seconds remaining and sent most of the fans out of the arena knowing Princeton would come out victorious.
The two teams will resume the home-and-home series tomorrow afternoon at the High Point Solutions Arena.
