The Princeton Tigers swept the Quinnipiac Bobcats in their second game of their weekend series on Saturday afternoon in Hamden. Three different players scored for the Tigers giving them the 4-1 victory. The story of this game, however, is not what Princeton executed on the ice, but what Quinnipiac did not.
“I thought Princeton was good, they played really well in net,” head coach Rand Pecknold said after the game, referencing Princeton goalie Colton Phinney’s 33 saves.
“I thought we had issues from the get-go,” Pecknold said. “We just struggled all game with composure and poise and our compete-level was iffy at best. A little better in the second, but one of the weaker games we’ve played in a while.”
Princeton’s Max Veronneau scored just three minutes into the game for his fifth goal of the season, giving the Tigers an early lead. He’d score again at the end of the third period catching the puck in the neutral zone to finalize the victory with an empty netter.
The Bobcats struggled with the puck in the offensive zone; only posting three shots on net nine minutes into the game. Princeton was able to capitalize on a power play generated by Tim Clifton heading to the penalty box for charging. A Ryan Kuffner goal slipped by Quinnipiac goalie Chris Truehl and left the Bobcats trailing by two.
The Bobcats were unable to capitalize on any of their own power plays within the first two periods, going 0-for-5 on the night.
At the end of the first period, Truehl was replaced in net by Andrew Shortridge for the remainder of the game. Truehl had let in five goals on Friday night against Princeton on Friday and two Saturday. Pecknold said he didn’t blame Truehl for the Tigers offense. Saturday afternoon, Pecknold recognized that his team just wasn’t playing its best.
“We weren’t willing to pay the price and go in and get dirty,” Pecknold said. “We had a lot of issues like fumbling the puck, whether it was five-on-five or the power play, we had a lot of guys who weren’t really good tonight.”
Just 24 seconds into the second period, junior Kevin Duane scored for the Bobcats on a breakaway, cutting the Tigers’ lead 2-1. Despite taking 34 shots on goal, Quinnipiac could not seem to find the back of the net.
“We need more traffic around the net,” Duane said. “Our coaches have kind of been harping on that all week and I really don’t think we executed that well enough this weekend.”
Duane scored his third goal in the past three games, but is more focused on the team’s success rather than his own.
“That’s three ECAC games we’ve lost in a row,” Duane continued. “We definitely have to regroup and start to figure things out, pay attention to more details, and stop making mistakes in the defensive zone.”
The Bobcats had a man advantage five times throughout the course of the game, and could not capitalize on their opportunities. In their fourth power play of the game with twelve minutes left, they had their best opportunity to score, but couldn’t get the puck past Phinney.
With 27 days until their next ECAC matchup, the Bobcats have a lot of time to focus on improvement.
“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing [to improve on],” said Duane. “Just clean up the defensive zone and find more ways to get traffic in front of the net so the goalie doesn’t see the pucks and just start capitalizing on opportunities.”
Princeton advances to 5-7-1 and 3-6-1 in conference play while Quinnipiac is now 10-7-2 and 6-4-1. Up next, the Bobcats play Boston College in the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh.
