Regulation lasted 60 minutes but it could’ve been over in 10, with the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team scoring three of its five goals in the first 10 minutes of Saturday night’s game, overpowering the Dartmouth Big Green in a 5-1 win.
It was freshman Matej Marinov’s turn to toe the crease after Vinny Duplessis carried the Bobcats to their 2-1 win the night before. With Dartmouth having beaten Quinnipiac in the shootout in the two teams’ first matchup of the year back on Nov. 3, Marinov was determined to not let history repeat.
“Dartmouth is a good hockey team, it’s not like we’re playing an easy game,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “(Marinov) was excellent tonight, and he’s been great in practice. We’re fortunate right now that we’ve got two really good goalies.”
Steering away 22 of 23 shots on goal, it is safe to say Marinov’s praise was well deserved.
On the other side of the score sheet, the Bobcats came out swinging offensively, potting three of their five total goals in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Less than five minutes after the initial puck drop, freshman forward Mason Marcellus stole the puck from a Dartmouth defender, squeezing between bodies and boards to move in toward the goal line. Tripped as he passed, Marcellus found junior Collin Graf to receive the puck, who glided into the crease before flicking a quick shot past the glove of second-year goaltender Cooper Black for the preliminary goal.
Marcellus would continue to fill up the stat sheet following his assist, positioning himself directly in front of the goal to tip in an oncoming shot from defender Davis Pennington. The puck redirection was too much for Black to handle, and the Bobcats quickly went up 2-0.
To finish off the early trifecta of goals, sophomore Sam Lipkin penciled his name into the score sheet, racing behind a 2-on-1 consisting of Jacob Quillan and Travis Treloar. Lipkin tapped the puck into a virtually wide-open net, finishing off the play after the initial shot from Quillan trickled behind Black for Lipkin to clean up.
It was a rough night on the ice for the Dartmouth Big Green, who struggled to skate alongside Quinnipiac. Players could be seen tripping over each other and falling down on defense — a poor showing of fundamentals to accompany their penalty woes.
The Big Green took six penalties throughout the game, including a five-minute major assessed to Braiden Dorfman at the tale end of the third period for cross-checking and hitting to the head. Of the six man-advantage opportunities, Quinnipiac cashed in thrice.
One power play goal worth mentioning happened to be the only goal scored in the middle period. With Dartmouth’s Eric Charpentier serving two minutes for slashing, the Bobcats played a game of tic-tac-toe. Lipkin started it off, passing cross-ice to Graf, who pushed it back across the ice again to Quillan. On the goal line, Quillan skipped it over to Treloar who punched in the game’s fourth goal.
Dartmouth labored down the stretch but would light the buzzer for the first time in the third period on a power play of their own. Graduate forward Zach Tupker rode the pine for a holding call, giving Luke Haymes the chance to net his 11th goal of the season, tipping in a shot just inside the blue line past Marinov and firmly into the mesh.
What makes the play so unique was how Big Green head coach Reid Cashman approached the powerplay. While the scoreboard read 11 minutes left to play in the period, Cashman pulled his goaltender in a wildly ambitious move, giving Dartmouth a risky, yet eventually successful 6-on-4 advantage.
Half a period and one Quillan nail-in-the-coffin goal later, the Bobcats would secure the win and the sweep of the weekend against two strong ECAC opponents.
Graf, Treloar and Quillan all had three points and Marcellus and Lipkin both tacked on two points of their own. After a worrisome stretch of decreased production from the team’s top two lines, players found comfort in getting themselves back into their scoring ways.
“Graf and Mason (Marcellus) are both two unbelievable players,” Treloar said. “It’s very easy to play with those guys.”
For Graf, a nominee for the Hobey Baker award, he found solace in overcoming some of his recent offensive skids.
“It was definitely a bit of a mental battle… especially that weekend at Cornell and Colgate was tough,” he said. “(But our) lines were clicking and the powerplay was good, especially today.
A weekend series in New York awaits the Bobcats next time they hit the ice when they will travel Friday to take on St. Lawrence and Saturday to face Clarkson. Both games will have 7 p.m. puck drops.
