The Quinnipiac Bobcats (9-13-4 overall, 4-8-2 ECAC Hockey) fell to the Princeton Tigers (8-10-3 overall, 5-8-1 ECAC Hockey) 5-3 in a rare weekday contest at the Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena Tuesday night.
The first period saw back and forth action from both teams. It looked like the Bobcats were going to take an early lead as Scott Davidson sent a cross-ice pass to Luke Shiplo through two defenders, but Quinnipiac was unable to capitalize as Princeton goalie Ryan Ferland made a fantastic save keeping the game scoreless.
Shortly after this sequence, Bobcat defenseman Brogan Rafferty took a cross-checking penalty that sent the Tigers to the power play just five minutes into the game. The Quinnipiac penalty kill made a couple of great plays, including a diving stop from forward Kevin Duane, but Princeton kept control of the puck. The Tigers were able to capitalize on their chance as a shot from the point deflected in and the Tigers took a 1-0 lead.
The Bobcats did not go away quietly as they started to pick up the pace on offense, sparked by their talented freshman forward Odeen Tufto. With ten minutes remaining in the period, Tufto kept the puck alive on the offensive blue line and tied up a defender. Tanner MacMaster then sent a saucer pass across the goal mouth for Nick Jermain, who buried it into the open net to tie the game at one.
It looked like we would head to locker room locked in a tie, but the Bobcats weren’t done yet. Following some continuous pressure by the Bobcats, Kevin McKernan took a shot from the right point and Scott Davidson who had a point-blank chance but didn’t finish. Finally, Luke Shiplo picked up the rebound and put Quinnipiac up 2-1 with his first goal of the season.
In the second, both teams went back and forth in a classic tale of two halves. Quinnipiac won the first half of the period as they maintained pressure highlighting in a great shift by the Pieper-Duane-Whelan line, who flooded the net with chance after chance. Princeton gained some momentum after a breakaway chance that nearly tied the game. The Tigers kept up the pressure and were awarded with another power play as Tanner Macmaster went to the box for tripping.
Princeton wasted no time and tied the game 32 seconds in, giving them their second power-play goal of the night. Defenseman Josh Teves took a great feed from Max Véronneau and buried a backhander top shelf. The teams headed to the break tied at two.
The Tigers came out aggressive on the puck and scored twice in the first three minutes of the third period, including a third power-play goal scored just nine seconds into the man advantage. Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold spoke about the penalty kill.
“We took some selfish penalties tonight, our penalty kill…I don’t know what was going on with that. We had guys running around, seniors running around, so it was frustrating.”
The Bobcats calmed down and pulled within a goal when Craig Martin found Alex Whelan on a fake shot slap pass from the left point. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, it was the only goal they would get as their efforts with the goalie pulled came up short. Princeton forward Ryan Kuffner sealed the game with an empty-netter.
The Bobcats will look to bounce back with a win when they take on the Clarkson Golden Knights (19-4-3 overall, 11-1-2 ECAC Hockey) Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena in Hamden.
