The No. 3 Quinnipiac Bobcats had their first regulation loss of the season to the No. 5 Boston University Terriers in a Thanksgiving eve matchup on Wednesday, November 22.
“Yeah, I’m frustrated,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “We needed to put that game away and BU is an excellent team . . . but we got to be better than that.”
While it may not have been a conference game for the Bobcats, Quinnipiac still had a lot to prove with the game being a top 10 matchup. This season, the men’s ice hockey team has also had a lot of struggle against the Big East with all three of their overtime losses coming against the Big East opponents. Quinnipiac also struggled on the road this season with an away record of 2-2-1.
While this would be no easy feat for them, Quinnipiac did have a lot of momentum coming into the game. The Bobcats had gone on a five-game winning streak, all of it being during conference play.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Pecknold. “We’re trying to build, we’re trying to instill our culture . . . we got guys from last year that are straying a little bit from our identity and cheating a little bit, but we’ve been getting better.”
Boston University had entered the game with an 8-3-1 record and a four-game win streak. They also had a dominant home stand with only one loss while playing at Agganis Arena this season. Each team had an even chance to add another tally to the win column.
During the first period, not much happened as both teams kept the other one from scoring. Quinnipiac did have two early power plays after two slashing penalties were called on the Terriers. Boston University would have a power play of their own towards the middle of the period after a hooking penalty was called on Christophe Fillion. Neither was able to capitalize on the opportunity though and they would enter the second period scoreless.
Things would look pretty similar to the first period with neither team being able to score. Both Quinnipiac and Boston University would add on two more power plays in the second period but continue to be unable to produce any goals.
“Yeah I thought the penalty kill was great,” said Boston University head coach Jay Pandolfo. “They’ve had a great penalty kill, they have for a long time, we didn’t get much going in the first few we had but we made adjustments along the way.”
At the beginning of the third period, Zach Tupker came around the back of the net to pass the puck to Andon Cerbone who was able to put it into the net and give the Bobcats a 1-0 lead.
MHOK:🚨BOBCAT GOAL🚨
Quinnipiac earns their first goal of the night after Zach Tupker goes back behind the net and passes it to Andon Cerbone to make it a 1-0 game.
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— Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports Network (@QBSN) November 22, 2023
Then only a few minutes later Mason Marcellus passed the puck across the ice to Charles-Alexis Legault. Legault shot the puck from the blue line and through the traffic to make it a 2-0 game in the third period.
The Terriers were not ready to give up yet. Defensemen Lane Hutson passed the puck down the middle and left winger Jeremy Wilmer hit the puck into the net behind Vinny Duplessis to get the Terriers on the board.
“(Quinnipiac) swarms you pretty quick so you have to make plays quick, you have to move the puck,” said Pandolfo. “You saw that on Wilmer’s first goal that we moved the puck around quickly because they try to close it quick.”
Later in the third period, Wilmer got the puck off the rebound from a blocked shot and passed it to Devin Kaplan. Ryan Greene then took the pass from Kaplan and shot the puck into the bottom left of the net to tie up the game.
MHOK:🚨 TERRIER GOAL🚨
Boston University ties the game up late in the third period after Ryan Greene shoots the puck into the left side of the net after a pass from Devin Kaplan.
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— Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports Network (@QBSN) November 23, 2023
The Terriers took advantage of the power play after a penalty was called on Quinnipiac’s Cooper Moore for interference. Greene earned his second goal of the game after a brother’s assist from Lane and Quinn Huston to take the 3-2 lead.
“Once we got the first one, we knew that we were closer to tying the game,” said Greene. “Once we were able to tie it, I think from there we had so much momentum and energy that we were able to get that last one.”
The Bobcat’s five-game winning streak would snap after the 3-2 loss against the Terriers. They now have a 9-4-1 record, while the Terriers improved to 9-3-1.
“We talked about some things that we needed to do and we did some of them and when we didn’t do them, BU capitalized,” said Pecknold. “That was frustrating but we’ll learn from it and we’ll move on.”
The Bobcats will look to get back in the win column in their next game on Friday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. away at RPI.
