By: Jonathan Banks
Alex Whelan skated into the offensive zone, deked right and buried his 14th goal of the season past Union goaltender Jake Kupsky under one minute into the third period.
At that moment, Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey head coach Rand Pecknold thought that was the jolt his team needed.
“We tied it 2-2 and I thought we were gonna win the game, I really did. I felt confident,” Pecknold said. “We were dominating zone time and getting tons of chances.”
To put it simply, that was not the case.
The Bobcats surrendered three goals on three breakaways in an tumultuous third period. They fell to the Union College Dutchmen, 5-2, at the Frank Perrotti, Jr. Arena on Friday night.
“We battled back to make it 2-2 and then we give up three breakaways… it’s disappointing as a coach,” Pecknold said.
Union’s three one-on-one opportunities were buried by Anthony Rinaldi, Sean Harrison and Brett Supinski.
However, they were against two different netminders.
After giving up 3 or more goals in a start for the ninth time this season, Andrew Shortridge was pulled for freshman Keith Petruzzelli. It was the third time this season the Detroit Red Wings draft pick relieved his sophomore counterpart.
Although the scoreboard and locker room morale won’t show it, Quinnipiac had an encouraging first period. The problem is staying consistent – something this team has traded blows with all year long.
“That game was kind of a microcosmo of our season,” Pecknold said. “We dominated the first period…I looked up late in the second and we were outshooting them 24-7 and we were losing 2-0. We struggle to finish and we make a mistake and it’s been a battle all year with that.”
To Pecknold, this game is more than just the team’s ninth home loss of the year.
It’s about figuring out a way to reestablish the culture and spirit of a team that has been so great in the past.
After Quinnipiac’s upset victory over Clarkson on February 2, senior forwards Bo Pieper and Tanner MacMaster reminisced about their early years in the program – specifically the 2015 team that went all the way to the NCAA title game.
The traits in that Quinnipiac team that made them so successful are nowhere to be found in this one.
“We’ve got to reestablish our culture. We’ve lost that a little bit,” Pecknold said. “We’ve got to reestablish our identity… unfortunately it’s a little bit of a fragile group right now.”
The Bobcats will look to avenge their early season loss to RPI on Saturday night, as the 11th place Engineers come to Hamden for Quinnipiac’s final home regular season home game of the season.
No Quinnpiac players were available for comment after the game.
AROUND ECAC HOCKEY
There was a lot of movement in the ECAC Friday night as all twelve teams were in action.
Due to their 5-2 win over Quinnipiac and a Clarkson loss to Dartmouth, the Union Dutchmen climbed up to 2nd in the standings. They will put their three game win streak on the line as they take on the Princeton Tigers tomorrow night in New Jersey.
The Cornell Big Red pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Brown Bears, courtesy of Alex Rauter’s eighth goal of the season. Cornell will host Yale tomorrow with a four point cushion at the top of the conference.
Yale defeated Colgate 4-3 in an immense game for both teams. Yale sits in fifth place in a three-way tie with Princeton and Dartmouth, while Colgate falls all the way to eighth place thanks to the loss.
If the season were to end today, Quinnipiac would head to New York to take on the Colgate Raiders in an 8/9 matchup. The teams split the season series, with the away team coming out victorious in each matchup.
