The men’s ice hockey team returned home for their last non-conference series of the regular season against the University of Maine, suffering a 2-1 overtime loss against the Black Bears in their first game of the weekend.
“They outplayed us,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “We got a lot of guys who played well and we had a bunch of guys that really struggled tonight.”
The Bobcats came out ready to fight in the first period, controlling the puck so that it spent most of its time on Quinnipiac’s offensive side.
It wasn’t until a crowd of Maine players gathered around the net, distracting Quinnipiac goaltender Matej Marinov enough that they were able to poke their first goal in. Maine right-winger Donavan Villeneuve-Houle was credited with the first goal of the night after an assist from left-winger Ben Poisson gave the Black Bears a 1-0 lead.
While both teams remained quiet for the rest of the period, Quinnipiac entered the first looking to tie up the score.
With Quinnipiac looking to tie the game, first-year Andon Cerbone traveled around the goal and shot the puck, but Maine’s goaltender Victor Ostman was there to make the save and keep the Black Bears ahead by a goal. Both goalies proved to be the star of the night with Marinov totaling 27 saves and Ostman having 17.
“(Marinov) made some big saves for us tonight, but they’re both good goalies,” Pecknold said.
Christophe Fillion was the first to break through for the Bobcats. He slapped a puck up into the top of the net after an assist from Christophe Tellier and Zach Tupker to tie the game with 9:15 left in the second period. The goal was also Fillion’s first of the season.
After the Bobcats tied the game, both teams entered the third period looking to find the game-winning goal, but neither were able to capitalize. With that, the game went into overtime, a scene that is becoming very familiar for Quinnipiac. The Bobcats have now gone to four overtimes in seven games so far this season, including their most recent loss to the University Of New Hampshire last Saturday.
Both teams had a couple of early chances at the beginning of overtime. Maine’s captain Lynden Breen found a breakaway but was stopped by Marinov. Jacob Quillan had a chance of his own after the face-off but shot the puck wide to keep overtime going.
With 1:10 left in overtime, Brandon Chabrier was able to break through and whip the puck right into the net to give Maine the 2-1 overtime win.
“(That) overtime is what I would call a disaster, but we’ll get better,” said Pecknold. “We got a lot of new guys and we’re trying to integrate and we just made a lot of mistakes tonight.”
Quinnipiac is now at a 3-3 season record, with two overtime losses in a row. Both teams will be back in action in Hamden Saturday night at 7 p.m.
