On Saturday evening, the Quinnipiac Bobcats defeated the Yale Bulldogs in the second rendition of the Battle of Whitney Ave. 6-2, in the CT Ice tournament consolation game.
The Bobcats were playing in this game as a result of their 2-1 last-second loss the night before against the UConn Huskies.
Coming into this one, the Bobcats knew they had to mentally reset following a tough loss.
“I think just regroup,” said junior forward Jeremy Wilmer. “We don’t have a lot of room for error.”
The Bobcats got going early in this one as following a Will Richter tripping penalty just over a minute into the game, the Bobcats took full advantage of the power play as a spinning pass from graduate forward Travis Treloar found a wide open Wilmer, who put it into a half empty goal for the 1-0 lead.
Quinnipiac got their second goal of the night just under 10 minutes into the game. While shorthanded, first-year forward Chris Pelosi picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and went in on a breakaway and put it top shelf for the goal.
Just a few minutes later while on a five-on-three man advantage, the Bobcats were able to get their third goal of the night when Treloar finished off a one-timer from down low off a nice pass from first-year forward Aaron Schwartz.
Special teams played a big factor in this one as the Bobcats went 3/7 on the power play and 7/7 on the penalty kill.
“I just think we’ve got a lot of good IQ guys out there on both units,” said head coach Rand Pecknold. “They did a really good job of winning battles.”
Yale was able to stop the bleeding when first-year forward Ronan O’Donnell turned around and whipped a shot from just above the circle that caught first-year goaltender Dylan Silverstein off guard, cutting the deficit to 3-1.
The second period did not have the same pace as the first, but there was still plenty of action.
The Bulldogs made it a one-goal game just over 10 minutes into the period when a loose puck in front found first-year forward Zach Wagnon who deked Silverstein and put it home to cut the lead to 3-2.
Sophomore forward Andon Cerbone regained the two-goal lead for the Bobcats, as with just 22.7 seconds remaining in the period, the forward was standing in the blue paint and was able to poke it in for the team’s fourth of the night.
The score stayed the same for the majority of the period until a wild sequence of events went Quinnipiac’s way.
With under three minutes to go in the game and the goalie pulled, Yale thought they made it a 4-3 game when O’Donnell put a shot past Silverstein that trickled towards the goal line and was inches away from crossing before a Quinnipiac defenseman was able to scoop it off the line.
Following the clearance, Wilmer went down and iced the game with an empty net goal, his second of the night, making it 5-2.
For good measure, first-year forward Ryan Smith got on the board less than a minute later when he wired a shot from the slot, making it a 6-2 game.
Despite failing to win the tournament for the fifth consecutive year, the Bobcats left the tournament on a high note and will be back in action on Friday, Jan. 31 at 7:00 p.m. when they take on the Dartmouth Big Green in ECAC action.
