The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team (4-5-1 overall, 1-4-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference) got the job done Friday night in a blowout victory, beating the Brown Bears (2-5-0 overall, 2-5-0 ECAC) by a score of 5-0.
Senior forward Landon Smith and sophomore goaltender Andrew Shortridge were the stars of the victory. Smith tallied three goals and an assist, while Shortridge provided the team with its first shutout of the season, making 22 saves. As early as it is in the season, this game seemed like a must-win, as the Bobcats have dropped four straight games, all of which have been in-conference. Rand Pecknold spoke on the matter, and seemed just as surprised as most people at this slow start to the season.
“Two years ago, we lost four games all season”, Pecknold said. “It’s just new territory for our juniors and seniors and they aren’t used to that, but we just need to deal with it and move on, and just become a better team every day.”
The Bobcats played with pace right from the start, and got on the board twice in the first period, scoring the first one on the power play. The first goal for Quinnipiac started with a great play by freshman forward Matthew Forchuk, who hit junior defenseman John Furgele with a stretch pass to create an odd man rush. Furgele, being forced to the outside, took a shot to the near pad of Brown freshman goaltender Luke Kania. The puck bounced right out to Landon Smith, who buried the rebound chance to put the Bobcats up 1-0 with 12:03 left to play in the first period.
Smith wasn’t done there, as he scored again shortly after by tipping in a point shot by sophomore defenseman Brogan Rafferty that found its way through traffic to deflect off of Smith’s stick and find the back of the net. The 100-point club member was then able to complete the natural hat trick in the second period, banging home a another rebound by driving hard to net once again, this time putting in a Tanner MacMaster rebound that was originally stopped on a breakaway. Smith talked about his performance, but realized what was most important about tonight’s game.
“The win is more important [than the hat trick]”, Smith said. “Forecheck, backcheck, blocking shots, Shorty (Shortridge) had a great game. When all those things come together, that’s when good things happen for us.”
Quinnipiac continued the goal frenzy throughout the second period, scoring twice more. On the power play, freshman forward Odeen Tufto dug the puck out of the corner, winning a puck battle against two Brown defensemen. Tufto made a quick pass to senior forward Bo Pieper. Pieper used his time and space to find Junior captain Chase Priskie, who fired a wrist shot top shelf for the goal. The Bobcats closed out the scoring late in the second period when Smith found Tanner MacMaster streaking to the net. Smith put a beautiful tape-to-tape pass through multiple Brown defenseman, giving MacMaster an open net to shoot at. MacMaster did not miss, getting his third goal of the season.
The third period was much less eventful than the first two, with both teams exchanging chances, but neither team able to capitalize. One thing that was stagnant throughout the game’s entirety was the play of Andrew Shortridge. The sophomore netminder was solid all night, and was certainly pleased with his team’s effort in front of him.
“We stuck to our systems”, Shortridge said. “We played good, hard, Quinnipiac hockey and got back to what makes us, us.”
The Bobcats certainly did just as Shortridge said, and will look to build off of it. Quinnipiac will look to grab another win tonight in one of the biggest rivalry games in college hockey, where they will take on the Yale Bulldogs (3-4-0 overall, 3-4-0 ECAC).
