In the rematch of the ECAC hockey Quarterfinals, the newly ranked No. 2 Bobcats took down the St. Lawrence Saints 2-1 on Friday night at the M&T Bank Arena after winning the Friendship Four in Belfast, Ireland. 

In the Friendship Four, they defeated Dartmouth 5-2 on Nov. 25th and they also defeated No. 17 UMass Amherst 3-2 in the final by way of a shootout to claim the Bellpot Bell.

The Bobcats continued their winning ways at home as they improve to 4-0-1 at home this season and 21-2-2 in the past two years. 

“I thought fans were great,” said coach Rand Pecknold. “The student section was awesome, I thought the crowd played a big part.”

“We don’t like losing at home,” said forward Skyler Brind’Amour. “Tonight the crowd was great and the student section was good which gets the boys fired up, you hate losing especially if it is at home.”

The Bobcats improved to 11-1-3 on the year and kept an undefeated 7-0-0 record in conference play. The Saints fell to 5-8-0 and 2-3-0 in conference play. Quinnipiac continued its unbeaten streak to 10 games. The Bobcats are now 9-0-1 in their last 10 and have outscored opponents 36-15. 

“We always talk about playing to our identity and we’ll get rewarded like we weren’t perfect tonight,” coach Pecknold spoke about his team and how they have played. “We played hard and we tried and made mistakes, we don’t need to be perfect to win.”

The Bobcats’ power play was on point tonight as they scored two power-play goals in the second period with the connection of Collin Graf, Sam Lipkin, and Brind’Amour. Lipkin scored the first on a 5-on-3 on the rebound of a Graf shot to put the Bobcats up 1-0. The second was scored off a tip in front by Brind’Amour off a Lipkin pass to put the Bobcats back in front 2-1 after a goal by Greg Lapointe tied it up for the Saints. 

“I think it’s been building each game. We had a really good weekend in Belfast, where we scored power-play goals,’ said Lipkin about the Bobcats’ power plays. “We’ve been practicing a lot at practice, it’s good to get rewarded in the game, for us it’s to move pucks, play fast and things tend to happen.”

The Bobcats’ defense was a big part of the game as they allowed 17 shots while the offense had 35 shots on goal. 

“It’s what we pride ourselves on is that we make sure we take care of the defensive end,’ said Brind’Amour. ‘Yaniv [Perets] made a lot of big saves like he usually does. For the whole year, we have been good defensively. During my time here it has been a big point, we take pride in it.”

The Bobcats’ next game will be at home on Saturday night Dec. 3rd against the Clarkson Golden Knights at 7 p.m. in their first meeting of the season. For the Saints, their next game is Saturday night away from home against Princeton.