Saturday afternoon marked the finale of the weekend series between the Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team and the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. A defensive battle that ended in a 2-2 tie after overtime.
“It was all momentum shifts,” said Quinnipiac head coach Cass Turner. “For both teams and both days. One team would be really pressuring and the other one was really panicked and vice versa.”
Starting in goal for the Bobcats was graduate student Logan Angers who’s been in net for each game this season besides the 12-2 victory over Post. After earning the victory in Friday’s game against Minnesota Duluth, the start on Saturday marked her 10th weekend playing back-to-back games.
“She keeps playing well,” said Turner on why Angers has the trust to be a constant on the ice. “She’s experienced, she’s our goalie. She’s the kid who’s putting us in great positions to win hockey games and we’re excited to have her.”
On the opposite side for Minnesota Duluth was first-year goaltender Ève Gascon who had shut the Bobcats out for the first two periods with 14 saves.
Trying to scout out a first-year with limited experience at the NCAA level (11th start tonight), can be rather challenging because there may be unknowns. However, when it came to the Mascouche, Quebec native, Turner had more familiarity than one might expect.
“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret,” said Turner. “She’s the best goalie to come out of Canada and is somebody who I’ve coached so we are very familiar with how she plays and knew what we needed to do to score. We just weren’t quite getting to the positions we needed to execute but she’s a phenomenal goaltender. She did not play like a first-year whatsoever.”
Turner’s experience with Gascon came in Canada’s 2023 National Women’s Development Team series vs. the United States from Aug. 16 – 19, 2023. In her one appearance during the series, Gascon was the losing goaltender in a 4-1 game stopping 27 of the 31 shots she faced.
With a heavy physical presence in front of her, Minnesota Duluth presented fewer scoring chances for Quinnipiac, especially during the third period and overtime.
After being shut out for the final two periods in Friday’s game, the Bulldogs got off to an early start 2:55 into the game as redshirt-sophomore left winger Mary Kate O’Brien beat Angers on a breakaway opportunity. Assisted by junior defender Hannah Baskin and senior right winger Olivia Wallin on a set-up similar to the one Quinnipiac senior right winger Nina Steigauf shut down Friday night.
WHOK: At the end of the first period Minnesota Duluth leads 1-0.
Mia Lopata is leading the Bobcats and the game with three blocked shots.
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After the initial goal, the game played out fairly even with Angers and Gascon stepping up to keep the score at 1-0. Similar to last night, both teams brought a physical presence making plays on the skater rather than solely on the puck.
“I’m super hopeful that that’s how physical it gets to be,” said Turner. “I think our team thrives in that environment when it’s like that. I’m hopeful that we continue to play that way because I think we have big strong kids who can win puck battles and really compete in that environment.”
In the second period as time ticked down with 2:07 remaining, Minnesota Duluth would strike again. This time, Baskin would shoot through a screened Angers over the middle.
For the first time since Oct. 27’s loss at Clarkson, the Bobcats were entering the third period without scoring a goal of their own. However, Quinnipiac would get their first goal of the game at 14:16 into the final period of regulation.
Senior defender Maddy Samoskevich would sneak the puck past Gascon up high from the same area as Baskin’s goal to make it a one-goal game again. Samoskevich’s second goal of the season was assisted by senior defender Kendall Cooper and graduate student center Jess Schryver.
“It’s definitely a relief,” said Turner on her squad’s first goal of the night. “You kind of get the monkey off your back and ready to go.”
The goal would generate a swing in momentum for Quinnipiac with an increased presence in the offensive zone. With 3:14 remaining in the game, Turner would call a timeout and pull Angers from the net to give the Bobcats an extra skater on the ice.
Graduate center and co-captain Sadie Peart would win the faceoff for Quinnipiac to the right of Gascon in the left circle that would allow first-year right winger Kahlen Lamarche to swing the puck to Cooper at the blue line, followed by a pass into the right circle to sophomore left winger Madison Chantler. Chantler would then find Peart over the middle for a chance, however it was stopped by Gascon.
With a rebound opportunity, the puck made its way to Chantler who would play a short game of catch with Cooper before finding Peart a few feet closer than Samoskevich’s goal to tie the game at two.
“You never know when you’re gonna get an offensive zone draw again,” said Turner. “And when you’re ready and your players are fresh, you have an opportunity for a timeout. It makes sense to pull and we have two very good groups and we work on six-on-five a lot. So they’re ready. It’s hard to maintain possession, it’s better when you score.”
With the score now tied, both teams looked to make the most out of each possession and try to get the final strike. However, the experience of Angers and the composure of Gascon kept the score 2-2 heading into overtime.
WHOK: A third period rally by Quinnipiac sends this game into overtime tied 2-2.
Kendall Cooper has recorded an assist on both Bobcat goals.
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Despite less time for each team to score during five minutes of overtime as opposed to 20 minutes of a regulation period, both teams shot with a higher volume. In the extra five minutes of play, Minnesota Duluth would average 0.6 shots on net per minute versus their 0.4 during regulation while Quinnipiac averaged one shot per minute as opposed to their 0.43 in regulation. However, it had no impact on the outcome as the game would end in a draw.
Despite not ending the game with a win, forcing the draw late in the game would result in the Bobcats winning the overall weekend between the two top-10 teams.
“I’m very proud of our team this weekend,” said Turner. “To get a win and a tie against a very strong team was outstanding, but I think the best part about the weekend was how we got better. We were a lot stronger defensively. I thought we did a lot of things offensively that were really good, some great decision making and then we were pretty relentless on the forecheck.”
With the out-of-conference weekend wrapped up, the Bobcats will return to ECAC Hockey play as they travel to Cambridge, Mass. and close out their season series at Harvard on Friday, Jan. 12 at 6 p.m.
