The Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team earned an important win at home on Friday night over the Harvard Crimson. The Bobcats came into the game in the thick of a tight ECAC standings fight, just three and a half points behind Clarkson for fourth place.
With the 2-1 Bobcat victory and a Colgate overtime win over Clarkson, Quinnipiac sits just half a point behind for the final bye in the conference tournament.
First-year Felicia Frank started in net for the Bobcats, her ninth of the year and fifth in the conference. Coming into the night, she had averaged two goals allowed per game.
The game got off to a slow start, with four shots in the first minute of play, all from the home team. The Bobcats dominated puck possession early, as the Crimson didn’t fire a shot on goal until over eight and a half minutes had come off the clock.
To pair with their stellar defense, the Bobcats were given two power plays after a pair of Harvard hooking calls. Despite that, the first period ended scoreless.
To kick off the second period, junior defender Zoe Uens ripped a slap-shot that Crimson goalkeeper Emily Davidson snagged out of the air. While she may not have scored, it did not stop Quinnipiac head coach Cassandra Turner from singing her praises after the game saying the team “certainly relies on her in big moments”, and adding “how her game has grown over the last few years is really the composure she has with the puck”. Uens ended the game with two blocked shots.
Later in the period, senior forward Maya Labad had a prime opportunity to break the tie after getting an edge on the lone Crimson defender in her way, but could not quite push the puck past Davidson.
Three minutes later, first year defender Mikayla Watson flashed some premiere stick work and sent a cross-ice pass that sneaked past a pair of Harvard skaters and found Labad. She waited a beat with the puck in her possession, before firing a bullet into the back of the net for her team leading 13th goal of the season. Meanwhile Watson became the third Bobcat with double digits in assists.
“I find each game she’s growing and she’s so easy to play with,” said graduate defender and captain, Kendall Cooper after the win, “Such a smart player… we saw that with her assist”.
The remainder of the second period seeped away without much action.
In the third, Cooper took a miracle shot from the blue line that got past Davidson and gave the Bobcats 2-0 lead. It was Cooper’s seventh goal of the season, but just her first since a November 30th game against Yale.
After the two goal lead, the Bobcats started playing with a ton of moxie. Coach Turner said “the second period seems to be our place. I think because we play fast and we have a lot of speed, we’re able to tire a lot of teams out and find a way to the back of the net.”
Coming right off a face-off, Harvard’s junior forward Sophie Ensley scored a goal of her own that gave the Crimson momentary life. However, the only had three shots on goal 12 minutes into the period and could not generate any more offense as the clock hit triple zeroes.
The Bobcats return to action on Saturday at 3 p.m., against the 11th place Dartmouth Big Green, who sit at 2-12-3.
