A familiar spring intensity returned to M&T Bank Arena on Friday night, where the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team beat down RPI 5-1 to take the opening game of the best-of-three ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals.
Ten Bobcats recorded points in the game one victory over the Engineers, as first-year Mason Marcellus led the scoresheet with three assists. Fellow first-year Andon Cerbone and junior assistant captain Jacob Quillan also came up big, contributing a goal and assist each.
“It’s awesome. Every game, the more physical, the higher the pace, the better it is for us,” Cerbone said after his postseason debut. “Nobody can play at the pace we play at.”
In this year’s ECAC tournament, the top-seeded Bobcats are pegged as Whitelaw Cup contenders; seeking its first conference title since 2016. Standing in the reigning national champions’ way of the semifinals in Lake Placid, New York are twelfth-seeded RPI, who advanced after upsetting Clarkson in the opening round.
Despite the series being a battle of the haves and the have-nots of the conference, the Bobcats are determined to keep their foot on the pedal. The same effort, night after night, regardless of bracket hierarchy.
“RPI is a good hockey team. They beat Clarkson on the road,” Bobcats head coach Rand Pecknold said. “They gave us a lot tonight. It was a hockey game and we had to find a way to grind.”
Quinnipiac’s depth shined early as the fourth line, typically deployed for checking and physical play, opened the scoring less than two minutes into the first. Anthony Cipollone took “crashing to the net” to another level, as he followed the puck past RPI goalie Jack Watson and careened head-first into the back of the cage.
The Bobcats’ leadership group later selected Cipollone as the night’s recipient of the yellow QU hardhat, given to a stand-out player of the game during the post-game locker room address.
“[Cipollone] I thought was one of our better players,” Pecknold said. “They’ve been good all year. You want to win in the playoffs, you’ve got to have four lines.”
In the second frame, the Bobcats increased the lead to 3-1 after impressive tallies from Quillan and Cerbone, with Marcellus assisting on both goals.
The trio showed creativity all night long in the offensive zone – Quillan re-directed a rebound off the end glass to score and Marcellus set up a nifty give-and-go to feed Cerbone for a tip-in off an odd-man rush.
“[Marcellus] and I have pretty good chemistry together,” Cerbone said. “I kind of gave him the puck and then we locked eyes so I knew that it was coming back, so I just kind of went to the net and he just put it right on my tape for me,”
While Marcellus and Cerbone have prior playoff experience with a trip to the semifinals and finals respectively of last season’s USHL Clark Cup, they remain in awe of the mythological post-season powers of their linemate Quillan, who netted an iconic ten-second overtime goal to secure the Bobcats’ first-ever national championship.
“(Quillan)’s a beast, it’s so different playing with him because when he goes into a corner you know it’s coming out to you,” Marcellus said. “He’s like a Greek god out there.”
Bobcats fans may start calling him Zeus, but there’s no denying that Quillan has made the ice his “Mount Olympus” as he’s found the scoresheet in eight of his last ten games played, setting a new career-high in scoring with 41 points.
RPI hung in the game after defenseman Nick Ardanaz netted his first NCAA career goal to keep the deficit at two, but Sam Lipkin and Collin Graf added late third-period insurance tallies to get the Bobcats a ferocious win to open the ECAC tournament run.
Now, the Bobcats look to complete the two-game sweep tomorrow, March. 16, against the Engineers to advance to Herb Brooks Arena, where an opportunity for the Whitelaw Cup and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament is at stake.
“I’ve definitely noticed a difference in the last two weeks of intensity in practice,” Marcellus said. “Going out there was fun, it was fun battling with the boys when it really means something now.”
The pace has been set and the race for championship gold is back on for the 2023 national champions. The puck drops on game two of the ECAC Quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Hamden.
