The No. 2/3 Quinnipiac men’s hockey team defeated Union 8-1 on Saturday night, winning its fourth straight game to remain unbeaten in ECAC Hockey play. 

The Bobcats got the scoring going early when first-year forward Sam Lipkin found the back of the net just 43 seconds into the contest. 

While hunting for goal No. 2 the Bobcats gave away a couple of bad turnovers in the defensive end. However, per usual, sophomore goaltender Yaniv Perets was there to make the stop to keep Union off the scoreboard.

The Bobcats offense, which was coming off an eight-goal effort against RPI on Friday night, remained aggressive.

Senior defender Jayden Lee got his stick on a shot, but the re-directed shot was saved by senior goaltender Connor Murphy. A few minutes later, with the Bobcats on the attack again, graduate student forward Ethan De Jong rang the pipe. 

Quinnipiac kept pushing. Graduate student Michael Lombardi was denied on a two-on-one when Murphy made a phenomenal stick save. 

The Bobcats got their best chance to put up a second goal when Union first-year defender Nick Young was called for elbowing on a dangerous hit delivered to graduate student forward Desi Burgart, sending Quinnipiac to the power play. 

Quinnipiac converted on the power play, taking a 2-0 lead when De Jong’s slap shot blew past Murphy before the goaltender even had a chance to move. 

A minute after they had taken a 2-0 lead, Quinnipiac scored again. This time, it was graduate student forward TJ Friedmann, who cleaned up a loose puck in front of the net to give the Bobcats a 3-0 advantage. 

Union got its first power play of the night with 58 seconds remaining in the first period when senior forward Skyler Brind’Amour was called for roughing. 

Quinnipiac was able to kill the 58 seconds off, heading into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.

The Bobcats continued their stout defensive effort, standing strong during the remaining 1:02 of the power play when the second period opened up to keep Union scoreless. 

Friedmann got fouled on a wide open scoring opportunity, which the refs awarded a penalty shot for.

The graduate student didn’t waste his opportunity to score, giving the Bobcats a 4-0 lead 1:25 into the second frame.

A minute later, it was the Bobcats again. Sophomore forward Collin Graf took his turn to put the puck in the net to make it 5-0 Quinnipiac. 

The Dutchmen challenged the play, however they were unsuccessful. 

While the Bobcats offense was impressive all night, their most impressive goal came from sophomore forward Jacob Quillan, who somehow got his stick on a puck while he was sliding on his chest. 

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The goal, which may get a nomination for Sports Center’s top-10 plays, gave Quinnipiac a 6-0 lead in the second period. 

“I saw I could beat the guy to the back post, I think my skate clipped his and then I was like in the air, but CJ made a nice pass, got a stick on it and somehow got up and got in there,” Quillan said.

Despite a massive lead for the Bobcats, they weren’t done scoring. Graf’s second goal of the game came with less than five minutes to go in the second frame, putting an ‘extra point’ on the Bobcats phenomenal night. 

Even though the game was well decided, Union finally decided to wake up with nine minutes to go when junior defender Mason Snell potted the Dutchmen’s first goal of the evening. 

Sophomore goaltender Yaniv Perets, who saved 16 of the 17 shots he faced, came out shortly after for first-year goaltender Chase Clark to a round of applause from the Bobcat faithful.

“Yaniv was great, I think he had four breakaways or two-on-ones after the score was 1-0, and he saved all of them,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said.

The Bobcats wanted to make sure that the game was really over, scoring another goal to put the exclamation on the victory as Graf made a beautiful move before finding Quillan who easily found the net. The assist capped off a phenomenal four-point night for Graf. 

After chants of “We want Altman” went on for about five minutes, Pecknold obliged, subbing in sophomore goaltender Noah Altman in for Clark with 1:50 remaining.

“The students were calling for it, so I finally caved and got him in there,” Pecknold said. “He’s an awesome kid, A+++, so it was nice, he’s gonna keep getting better and he made a couple nice saves.”

Altman survived the final 1:50 without letting up a goal, which the fans in attendance might have been more excited for than any of the eight goals scored tonight. 

The victory sends the Bobcats into the holiday break a perfect 10-0 in ECAC play as they haven’t been beaten since Oct. 23. 

Quinnipiac will be back in action on Dec. 30 when the Bobcats travel to Massachusetts to play Holy Cross.