On Friday night, the Quinnipiac Bobcats embarked on a huge rivalry game with the Cornell Big Red, which saw the Bobcats pull out an 8-4 win. This matchup was the 50th all-time between head coaches Rand Pecknold and Mike Schafer.
“It’s good now… we had some bumps in the road back in the day. But no, it’s really good now. I think Schafer is a really good coach, I have a lot of respect for him… They run a great program,” Pecknold said.
With a lot at stake, both in the ECAC and the national rankings, the Bobcats got off to a hot start. Three straight goals from Matthew McGroarty, Cristophe Tellier and Collin Graf had M&T Bank Arena rocking, despite their smaller-than-usual student section with Thanksgiving break commencing Friday afternoon.
The goal to break the seal was by the first-year center from the Westport, Connecticut native McGroarty, whose first career goal as a Bobcat surely energized fans.
The Bobcat’s electric start forced Cornell head coach Schafer to make the tough decision to substitute star goaltender Ian Shane for sophomore Remington Keopple. Shane had won the ECAC Goaltender of the Week, just two weeks ago.
This hot start was not without the defense to back it up. The Big Red only got the best of goaltender Vinny Duplessis once in the first period as Gabriel Seger scored his sixth goal of the year.
Quickly after the second period puck dropped, Jacob Quillan capitalized on a heave of a pass that made it the distance of the ice by 2019 Detroit Red Wings draftee Cooper Moore.
The second period was, however, consumed with penalties. Eight penalty minutes were assessed, and we witnessed a four-on-four on the ice for a minute and a half.
Goaltender Vinny Duplessis had a strong second period as well, despite allowing two goals. Duplessis saved nine of eleven shots by the Big Red. In the waning minutes of period two, team captain and graduate student Jayden Lee made a highlight reel play to put the Bobcats ahead 5-3 with his third goal of the season.
Lee had a career-high four points tonight. Lee was able to net one goal and tack on three assists in one game which are extremely impressive numbers for a defenseman.
“That was wild. That was something I haven’t seen from him, ever maybe. He’s got it, he can do it, it’s just more in practice,” Graf said. “That was a huge goal for us, ‘cause they were pushing hard to make it 4-3 and then to get that one before the period really gave us a lot of confidence going into the third and then we were able to take over in the third period.”
In the final period, the Bobcats were hungry to put the game away and they made that abundantly clear. After giving up a quick goal to open the period, Mason Marcellus, Christophe Fillion, and Graf all put the puck behind the net to close out the Big Red.
The Bobcats have a quick turnaround as they face the Colgate University Raiders on Saturday night in Hamden.
“I think it’s just like any other game, you know, like, we always have the back-to-backs Friday, Saturday. I know the boys are going to be fired up,” Lee said. “I know we’re going to be fired up and ready to go.”
Friday night’s performance ties a season-high in goals with eight, only matched by a mid-October meeting with American International College. Saturday night, they hope to get off to another hot start and claim their ninth win of the season, and fifth in ECAC play.
