The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey had its final game at M&T Bank Arena of the season last night against the St. Lawrence Saints. The winners of the Clear Cup, and still, the country’s reigning national champions, the Bobcats headed into the matchup knowing they would be the No. 1 seed in the ECAC tournament, boasting a 13-3 record at home.
As for St. Lawrence, its sole road victory this season came on Nov. 4th in a matchup with Ferris State. The Saints were locked into the No. 7 seed for the ECAC tournament.
Quinnipiac won the opening faceoff and never looked back. Just four minutes into the game, the Bobcats displayed some stellar puck movement that let senior defender Iiavni Räsänen take a deep shot from the left wing that managed its way into the back of the net. It was his third goal of the season and just the sixth of his career.
After seven minutes, Quinnipiac was outshooting the Saints 7-0 and up 6-0 with shots on goal. Not long after, junior forward Colin Graf got the puck out of trouble in Bobcat territory and secured himself in a one-on-one. Graf skated right on past his defender for an easy goal, his 20th on the season. The rest of the first period dwindled down without any notable action, Quinnipiac with a 2-0 lead.
The second period got underway with Graf and senior forward Travis Trelaor ripping big shots that both missed. Then, things started to get rowdy in front of the St. Lawrence net with a big shoving match. Just 40 seconds later, Quinnipiac silenced the Saints as sophomore defender Charles Alexis Legault slid the puck at an unreal angle to sneak it past St. Lawrence’s Mason Kucenski, a freshman making his first career start.
“It’s easy when you’re on the ice with Collin Graf,” Legault joked after the game. “You want to win it for those guys,” he said when asked what his emotions were on senior night.
Five minutes in, the Bobcats were up 10-1 on shots in the second. The next several minutes were tense, with Legault, Treloar and Christophe Fillion all getting into scuffles.
Yet again, the Bobcats had an answer. After St. Lawrence’s Reilly Moran got called for boarding, Quinnipiac started out very conservative on the powerplay, not truly making an advance on the net. That is until Christophe Tellier took the puck from right to left, drawed three defenders onto him, and then found Treloar who was wide open for his 12th goal of the year. 4-0 Bobcats.
With just a minute left in the second, St. Lawrence finally got on the board as Mason Waite pocketed one to make it a slightly more respectable 4-1.
Immediately after the third period’s opening faceoff, sophomore forward Sam Lipkin grabbed the puck and just slashed it right through Kucenski’s arm for his 13th goal of the year.
After another five minutes, first year Andon Cerbone flipped the puck over to senior Cooper Moore, who gave it right back to Cerbone, who scored for the ninth time this year.
Halfway through the third, senior goaltender Vinny Duplessis exited the ice at the bank one last time in the regular season. In his only season so far as the starter for the Bobcats, he averaged less than one goal allowed per game. He received a standing ovation as he skated off. Freshman Matej Marinov entered the game in his place.
Even without the team’s anchor in net, Graf lofted a great pass into the air to Lipkin to get in front of the defense and make it 7-1 in favor of the home team.
With three minutes left, the crowd started a “We Want Altman” chant, growing louder and louder as the time went on without the junior goalie in net. After about a minute, head coach Rand Pecknold gave the crowd what they wanted, and the arena erupted with applause as Noah Altman left the bench.
As the clock ran down below a minute, the Bobcats gave the crowd one last reason to cheer, as Tellier and Davis Pennington managed themselves into a 2-on-1. The Saint defender opted to take out Pennington, leaving Tellier free to cut to the net and give Quinnipiac a full touchdown lead, plus the two-point conversion, to round out the 8-1 final score.
The Bobcats secured a first-round bye in the ECAC tournament and now have roughly two weeks off as the lower seeds fight it out.
“The big bonus of the bye is that you get to get guys healthy,” said Pecknold after the game. He explained that they’ve got a few guys banged up at this moment, but once they start up again, they’ll be ready.
“We’ll do what we do all the time,” Pecknold said.
