M&T Bank Arena hosted a soldout crowd Saturday night to watch the No. 8 Quinnipiac Bobcats take on the RPI Engineers. The Bobcats came into the game surging, winning six of their last seven including a 6-2 rout of Union the night prior. Meanwhile, the Engineers were 2-5-2 over their last nine. On Dec. 1, Quinnipiac marched onto RPI’s home ice and beat them by four goals.
With only four games left before the ECAC tournament, Quinnipiac still held their lead over Cornell for first in the conference. RPI, on the other hand, was tied with Brown for the tenth spot.
RPI got off to a hot start, leading shots on goal 3-0 after four and a half minutes. They got on the board first too, as sophomore defender Max Smolinski ripped a deep shot that deflected off Quinnipiac goaltender Vinny Duplessis and into the upper corner of the net.
Quinnipiac did not wait long to tie it up, as junior forward Colin Graf got loose on a breakaway and tied the game at one. It was also Graf’s 17th goal of the season. Quickly after, another junior forward, this time Christophe Fillion, used some shifty stickwork to cut through the RPI defense and sink the puck in the back of the net.
Yet again, just minutes following Fillion’s lead-shifting score, sophomore defender Charles Alexis Legault got the pass over to first year forward Mason Marcellus. Marcellus used a great left-handed shot to find the hole RPI goalie Jack Watson left open.
Towards the end of the first, the ‘bank’ got up in arms after sophomore forward Sam Lipkin got roughed up by RPI forward Ryan Brushett. It was just the start of the bad blood between the Bobcats and Engineers that night.
The Bobcats capitalized plenty early on. They won all of the first nine faceoffs in the first nine minutes of the game and scored three times on their first four shots on net. They also went 15-3 on faceoffs in the first period. They used those opportunities to bring a 3-1 lead to the end of the first.
To start the second, junior defender David Pennington sent an Engineer spinning right. Then, Quinnipiac defender Jayden Lee flattened RPI’s Jakob Lee. Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said that “it got a little chippy” and both sides were “tenacious” throughout the game.
Speaking of that fiery nature in this game, an RPI hooking penalty gave the Bobcats a power play. Yet again, Jacob Quillan won Quinnipiac the faceoff and got it out to Graf. Graf flicked the puck right into the net for his second on the night.
Despite an RPI goalie change, the Bobcats would continue the bludgeoning with Lee finding Marcellus for a wide-open goal to make the score 5-1 Bobcats. RPI would tack on a second goal before the end of the period, along with some more fireworks between the two teams.
The Bobcats headed into the final period in steep command of the game having both Marcellus and Graf just one score away from a hat trick.
Not even two minutes into the third Lipkin and Graf got into it with a trio of Engineers. Referees had to break up the quintet of skaters.
Marcellus ripped a huge shot, clearly vying for that first career hat trick. However, just moments later, Graf sank his third shot to secure the second hat trick of his dominant collegiate career.
After the game, Graf said that while he was thinking about the hat trick, he “was not trying to change [his] game too much”.
Marcellus, Zach Tupker, and RPI continued to scuffle. However, the energy in Hamden completely shifted when coach Pecknold made the call to send Noah Altman in for the second straight night. The Bobcat faithful were buzzing as the junior goaltender went into the net.
The third period was largely uneventful outside of the Graf milestone and Altman entrance until Travis Treloar took the puck up the ice, slid it through the legs of an RPI defender, isolated himself with the goalie, then pushed it behind and through his legs and then flipped it into the net. If that description didn’t paint a perfect picture in your mind, check out Sportscenter’s Top 10 tomorrow night.
The Bobcats finished the game with a dominant 7-2 win to all but secure their top seed in the ECAC tournament. They won 45 of the 61 faceoffs and always seemed to possess the momentum. They return to action next Saturday at Brown.
