After two best-of-three series the Quinnipiac Bobcats and the Colgate Raiders played a one-and-done game on Friday to decide who will make the ECAC Tournament Finals. The game landed in the favor of the Raiders as they took down the Bobcats by a score of 5-1 at the Ingalls Ice Rink in New Haven. The Raiders with the win are set to face No. 9 Clarkson for the ECAC Tournament Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s ice hockey championship. 

Colgate has now eliminated Quinnipiac in the semifinal round for the third consecutive season. The Bobcats finished their season with a record of 29-9-0. The Raiders extended their hopes for the ECAC Tournament title Saturday night.

“I thought our team showed a lot of heart and a lot of fight today,” Quinnipiac head coach Cass Turner said. “We didn’t start the game that we needed to. But, I thought we kept fighting through the game as there was no quit in our game. We hope we can learn a lot from this game and hopefully get a bid into the tournament and keep competing.”

The Raiders got out to the front foot in the first period getting the first goal of the game with 46.5 seconds left in the first period as Katie Chan scored her eighth of the season to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead going into the second period. The Raiders dominated the first period in terms of shots on goal as the Raiders led the Bobcats in this category 13-1. 

“We didn’t need to change what we were doing, we felt like we were playing well, the message is don’t change we talked about having a 0-0 mentality, especially when you are playing with a lead,” said Colgate head coach Greg Fargo. “When you do that you are able to turn the page and not play just by what the scoreboard says.”

The second period started how the first period ended as the Raiders scored within the first 11 seconds as Kaitlyn O’Donohoe scored her 19th goal of the season to put the Raiders up 2-0. After the goal, the Bobcats came out and had a couple of chances as they registered nine shots on goal compared to the lone one shot in goal in the first period. 

Even with the Bobcats pressuring the Raiders stormed back as they scored two goals in 1:39 in the last two minutes behind goals by sophomore forward Neena Brick and junior forward Dara Greig who scored their 10th and 19th goals of the season, respectively, to give the Raiders a 4-0 lead going into the final period.

With the Bobcats being down 4-0 going into the third period the Bobcats threw all they had toward Colgate’s sophomore goalie Hannah Murphy, putting 20 shots on goal. The Bobcats did score one goal past Murphy as Alexa Hoskin scored on the power play while being a player up on the power play as well. The Raiders did score one empty-net goal on the penalty kill by Danielle Serdachny to give the Raiders their fifth goal of the game.

Even though the score ended 5-1, Murphy for Colgate and Logan Angers for Quinnipiac shined today as both goalies saved 29 and 27 shots, respectively. Both head coaches were proud of their goaltenders on Friday.

“[Murphy’s] rock solid, she’s been rock solid all year, she’s one of the best goaltenders in the country,” Fargo said. “Murph has this ability to get a whistle when we need it, keep things calm, I think she was keeping it calm when we went down to a 6 on 4. She was great tonight and a big part.”

“[Angers] was outstanding tonight,” Turner said. “It was late in the first when they finally scored, she made a ton of huge saves, point-blank saves. She continued to battle throughout the game, she’s calm, confident, and ready for big games and big moments.”

The Bobcats now have to wait until Sunday, March 5 at noon to see if they will make it to the NCAA tournament and who they would face. For the Raiders they will play Saturday, March 4 in the ECAC Hockey Tournament finals against the Clarkson Golden Knights.