Sundays are usually made for rest and the Bobcats agreed with that sentiment Saturday night, jumping out in front and never looking back, defeating the Brown University Bears 5-1. The victory completed a sweep of the Bears in the first round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs.
“Not having to play a four o’clock game on a Sunday… You know, we had to do that last year with Cornell and it’s not fun, it’s a battle and it takes a toll on your body,” assistant captain Thomas Schutt said after the game. “So it’s nice to have the day off tomorrow and take it easy and then get back after it Monday.”
The Bobcats’ victory was especially special for their seniors, who notched their 100th win as a class.
“I think just as a group, from our freshman year we just clicked with each other,” Schutt said. “I just look to them like brothers. I got their back and I know they got mine. I think that has really helped.”
Quinnipiac jumped on the board early again when Landon Smith obtained a puck in the slot and scored, notching his 10th point in the past nine games.
The play started when Tanner MacMaster skated with the puck to the left of Brown goalie Gavin Nieto and moved the puck in the slot to Smith, who gathered the puck and beat Nieto glove side, picking the corner and giving Quinnipiac the 1-0 lead.
MacMaster wanted a goal of his own and got it three minutes after assisting on the first one.
With the Bobcats on the power play after Brown’s Max Gottlieb took a hooking call with a little less than 15 minutes to play in the first period, MacMaster gathered the puck once again to the left of Nieto, this time keeping it himself, using a screen in front of the net to score his eighth goal of the season, pushing Quinnipiac’s lead to two.
“We wanted to get out to a good start and we did that,” MacMaster said.
Brown attempted to answer back when Sam Lafferty struck with a shot at the point. The puck made its way through a ton of traffic in front of the net and found its way past Shortridge, cutting Quinnipiac’s lead to one.
“It was a good 60 [minutes],” Head coach Rand Pecknold said after the game.
The Bobcats would answer fast. Just two minutes later Nick Jermain played the puck to Thomas Aldworth, who fired one on net, where it caught the skate of Schutt. The puck bounced off Schutt’s skate and went past Nieto, pushing the Bobcats’ lead back to two with a little less than three minutes to play in the middle stanza.
“Sometimes just a little bit of puck luck.” Pecknold said about the recent surge in scoring, “Guys are confident shooting the puck.”
MacMaster picked up his third point of the night when he gathered the puck from Connor Clifton and played it into the offensive zone. MacMaster held onto the puck, waiting for the play to form, where he found Clifton on the opposite face-off circle. Clifton deposited the puck in the back of the net, giving Quinnipiac a firmer grip on their lead, 4-1.
Brown’s last chance was cut off when they pulled the goalie with a little more than three minutes remaining. Bo Pieper gathered the puck deep in the defensive zone and sent it sailing down the ice, solidifying the Bobcats win, 5-1.
The Bobcats will continue their push in the ECAC Playoffs when they travel to Canton, NY to face fourth seeded St.Lawrence in the second round.
“It’s going to be a good series. Obviously we will have to deal with the road, but we will face that adversity.” MacMaster said.
