NEW HAVEN, Conn – The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team entered Ingalls Rink with a record of 4-5 on the season, 1-2 in ECAC play. They had struggled as of late, dropping three of their last five games.
Coming off a Friday night win over Brown in Providence, Rhode Island, the Bobcats returned to their winning ways once again with a 4-1 victory over the Yale Bulldogs.
Just four and a half minutes into the game, Yale opened the scoring.
Senior center Will Dineen fired a shot that bounced off the Bobcats’ first-year goaltender Dylan Silverstein’s right pad and first-year winger Ronan O’Donnell was there to bury the rebound to put the Bulldogs in front early on.
Just 12 seconds later, the Bobcats responded as sophomore forward Mason Marcellus buried the loose change of a tenacious net mouth scramble to even the game at one.
The battle of Whitney Avenue remained deadlocked after 20 minutes, with shots even at 12 between the two squads.
39 seconds into the second period, Marcellus found the net for his second goal of the night by banking a pass off a Yale defender and behind sophomore goaltender Jack Stark.
Less than two minutes later, the Bobcats were hungry for more, and a tripping penalty by Bulldogs sophomore defenseman Rhys Bentham allowed them to capitalize.
“We have five really skilled players out there. Once we get clicking and really start rolling off each other, we’ll be really good,” Marcellus said of his team’s powerplay.
After graduate forward Travis Treloar left the puck on a tee at the left circle, first-year winger Aaron Schwartz faked a slap shot and then wristed a shot high-blocker past Stark to extend the Bobcat lead to 3-1.
“[Treloar] made a really nice to pass to me… I just tried to get it off as quick as I could,” Schwartz said.
Quinnipiac would use its advantage to play a defensive game in the third, leaning on Silverstein to help close out the game. He notched 22 saves in the win.
“I thought he was excellent. He made some big saves, he was confident, and he handled the puck well,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said.
Graduate forward Jack Ricketts sealed the deal with an empty net goal to secure the 4-1 win for the Bobcats.
“We were just focusing on making all the plays defensively, not giving them any life,” Marcellus said of the Bobcats’ third-period play.
Although the scoreboard heavily favored Quinnipiac with a minute remaining, this heated rivalry couldn’t wait until the final buzzer for fisticuffs to arise.
The two sides heading off the ice with emotions running high was fitting for a Quinnipiac vs. Yale hockey game.
The result is Quinnipiac’s 15th straight victory over Yale.
In addition to their win over Brown on the road the night before, the Bobcats completed the sweep on the weekend after falling to Dartmouth and Harvard at home last weekend.
“We did a lot of reflecting… getting swept at home never feels good. We looked in the mirror, we came to practice Monday ready to work, and it paid off this weekend,” Schwartz said.
Yale’s next game will see them travel to upstate New York on Friday for a matchup with the St. Lawrence Saints.
The Bobcats will also be taking an upstate New York trip on Friday, but instead to face the No. 7 Cornell Big Red.
“We’re a young team, trying to get our culture in place. I thought we took a lot of good steps this weekend,” Pecknold said.
