On Saturday evening, the Quinnipiac Bobcats secured an 8-0 win over the American International College Yellow Jackets, securing a home-and-home sweep following Friday’s 3-2 overtime win in Springfield, MA.
The Bobcats scored early and scored often, starting with Sam Lipkin scoring 5:13 into the game, following a dish pass from Jacob Quillan, creeping in to put the puck in the low corner past the Yellow Jackets’ goalie.
The rest of the period was back and forth until more action took place in the final minute.
Davis Pennington, with one minute remaining, circled the Yellow Jacket net and found a wide-open Mason Marcellus, who slammed the puck five-hole for a 2-0 lead.
“Now I feel like I’m just going out there and playing,” Pennington said. “Not so much thinking about what’s going on, it’s becoming second nature.”
A mere 20 seconds later, Collin Graf, who had been with injury out since the opener against Boston College, scored on a rebound from a shot that exploded off the boards to make it 3-0.
This ended the night for Yellow Jackets goalie Nills Walstrom. After giving up three goals on just nine shots, he was replaced by Alexandros Aslanidis.
Following the goal, Timofei Khokhlachev received a cross-checking penalty to put the Yellow Jackets down a man.
While on the powerplay, the Bobcats were able to make it 4-0 42 seconds into the second period, following a Travis Treloar goal, when he was able to work his way through a wave of bodies, poking a loose puck over the line.
This would mark three goals for the Bobcats in the span of just a minute in a half.
While already leading 6-0, Lipkin was able to poke in a rebound late in the period to make it 7-0 Bobcats.
This would give the Bobcats their third power play goal in four attempts in just the second period.
An assist on the Lipkin goal gave Graf his fifth point on the night in his return game, certainly not a bad way to get reacclimated to his team.
This was also the 12th point of the night from the Bobcats top line of Quillan-Lipkin-Graf.
“We’re all great friends off the ice,” Graf said. “On the ice we have good chemistry.”
The third period was a lot more even, as the only goal of the period came from Cristophe Tellier, who in the final three minutes of the period came in on a 2-on-1 odd-man rush and buried the shot to make it 8-0 Bobcats.
“Just everything went our way,” said head coach Rand Pecknold. “That happens sometimes in the game of hockey.”
While it was a big night for Graf, it was also a big night for Bobcats’ goalie Matej Marinov, the first-year goalie made his first career start and recorded his first career shutout, saving all 16 shots thrown his way.
The Bobcats will look to keep the momentum going when they take on the University of New Hampshire next Friday in Durham at 7 p.m.
