On Mar. 20, 2021, the Bobcats suffered a crushing defeat to the Saints. They lost 3-2 in overtime on their home ice in the ECAC Hockey championship game. Fast forward to Nov. 20, and the result was a little bit different. The Bobcats crushed the Saints, winning 8-0 in their first meeting since the championship. 

The Bobcats jumped out to an early lead by scoring the first goal at the 5:35 mark in the first period. Junior Joey Cipollone got the scoring barrage started and Ethan De Jong kept it going, scoring on the Bobcats’ first power play to put them up 2-0 in the first period. 

Quinnipiac kept pouring it on in the second period. After getting a hat trick just a few games ago, graduate transfer Oliver Chau netted a backhander at the 4:21 mark in the second period. In a matter of three seconds De Jong scored his second goal on this historic night and just like that the Bobcats were up 4-0 and showed no signs of slowing down. 

The Bobcats kept their foot on the gas as Ty Smilanic netted two goals, one on a penalty shot, and Ethan rounded out his hat trick with his third goal at the 13:18 mark of the second period. 

If you thought it was over, you’d be wrong. Wyatt Bongiovanni scored the final goal of the game, on a St. Lawrence power play no less, to put the nail in the coffin.   

The Bobcats defense kept the Saints from scoring a single goal all night. They played tough, gritty defense all night long and that was another key component for the Bobcats victory. 

Coach Joe Dumais touched on the Bobcats’ defense after the game.

“They were good,” said Dumais. “Their gaps were good, their sticks were good… I thought we got a lot of sticks on pucks and we try to create a lot of turnovers and then go north as quick as we can and I thought we did a real good job at that tonight.” 

De Jong was the catalyst for this Bobcat win. He recorded his first career hat trick during Saturday’s game, including two huge goals in the second period that put the game out of reach. 

“Looking back on the past few games my shot totals were very low and going into this game I thought, shoot the puck a little bit more and fortunately for me, I got those opportunities in good spots,” De Jong said.  

De Jong also spoke about the team’s reaction when they saw this game on the schedule. 

“As it got near, we got fired up,” De Jong said. “Like I said, we took it personally when we didn’t win the league on home ice and we wanted to make a statement.”

Even though this game was just a regular season game, for De Jong and the rest of the Bobcats, it was more than that. It was seen as a chance to get revenge and more importantly make a statement, as De Jong pointed out. 

Dumais reflected on whether there was any extra motivation heading into this ECAC matchup.

“We didn’t talk about it too much, but I think we have a room full of guys with a lot of pride and they obviously remember that last game, so they wanted to come out and set the tone,” Dumais said.  

The Bobcats are headed towards a rough ECAC Hockey schedule with matchups against RPI, Union, Princeton and Brown. They look to keep this momentum going in their game against RPI on Dec. 3, in Tro, New York.