The Quinnipiac Bobcats lost 5-2 to the Robert Morris Colonials in the championship game of the Three Rivers Classic. Quinnipiac has a history with tournaments in Pittsburgh. The game was at the PPG Paints Arena (formerly Consol Energy Center) which was the site of the 2013 Frozen Four where Quinnipiac got blown out by Yale in the NCAA National Championship game. Friday provided more of the same as Bobcats let this game slip away from them as they gave up the lead in the second period where the Colonials scored two goals. They then went on to score three more in the third period to really seal the deal.
It was really a tale of two halves; Quinnipiac came out guns a blazing in the first period when Chase Priskie scored an early goal to give the Bobcats the lead and end his scoring drought.
“He’s very dynamic offensively and he’s been playing really well all season the puck just hasn’t been going in for him,” head coach Rand Pecknold said after the game.
Dating back to Thursday’s game against Boston College, goaltender Chris Truehl put together arguably his best four periods of net minding of season. He was making big save after big save and moving the puck well for his teammates. But that run came to sudden end when Quinnipiac’s penalty gave up Robert Morris’ first goal of the night. The Colonials started getting a lot more shots on Truehl, which eventually led to the second goal of the game; the goal was a game changer.
“The second goal, I thought that was the game,” Pecknold said. “Just a really poor effort by one of our players to get out on his point and it’s disappointing.”
The Bobcats were simply outplayed from there on out. Robert Morris spent most of the third in Quinnipiac’s zone. The Colonials were getting the puck deep and used good passes to keep the puck away from the Bobcats. The Colonials found most of their offensive success in the slot that was, for the most part, clear of Bobcat defenders which lead to open shots for the Colonials. Those are the mistakes and a lack of effort from Quinnipiac that Pecknold put into question after the game.
“Our effort is usually off the charts and tonight it wasn’t. There were a few plays that really cost us,” Pecknold said.
Pecknold was not happy with the way the Bobcats played in the final two periods. He talked about the “buy in level” of the team being a major problem.
“We have to get back to our buy-in level back to 100 percent which is what is was last year where we had the season we had, we overachieved,” Pecknold said. “We overachieve just about every year when our buy-in is at 100 percent. The blind faith from our players in our coaching staff, what we do and why we win. Right now that buy-in level is at about 75-80 percent they’re just not all in right now.”
Pecknold will try and have his team at a higher buy in level when they face No. 4 Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts next weekend. As for Robert Morris, they’ve won three of the last five Three Rivers Classics and are first in Three Rivers Classic history with seven wins. Their next game is a date with American International College on January 6 in the new year and it will be played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
