Photo Courtesy: Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Sierra Goodwill
Follow @sierramarie925
Just minutes into game, the outcome seemed inevitable. The No. 4 Quinnipiac Bobcats (12-1-3, 6-1-2 ECAC) dominated the Dartmouth Big Green (4-5-2, 4-2-2 ECAC) from the start. The result? Touchdown for QU. Bobcats won this one 7-1.
Dartmouth came into the matchup with the best power play percentage in the ECAC at 25.8 percent. Friday night they went 0-for-5 versus the Bobcats. Conversely, QU went 3-for-5 with the man advantage. Quinnipiac Head Coach Cass Turner said she placed a lot of emphasis on special teams in practice this past week.
“Special teams are something that you work on but you need to believe in and you need to have confidence in the details that are going to help you to score goals on the power play and help you keep the puck out of the net on the PK. I think that’s exactly the confidence boost our power play needed,” Turner said.
Senior defenseman Cydney Roesler said blocking shots and shutting down Dartmouth’s most threatening line, especially on the power play, was the game plan.
“They have a really good power play, really strong, and we knew that was going to be key and we focused on it all week and we did a great job with it tonight,” Roesler said.
Sydney Rossman broke a program record Friday night for the longest shutout streak. She went 296:42 minutes without letting a puck past her.
“We’ve had a long history of great goaltenders here and to now have someone like Syd be the person who owns that record, I know that Chelsea Laden and Victoria Vigilanti would be really proud and I’m excited for her as well,” Coach Turner said.
However, the whole game wasn’t full of joy for the Bobcats. There was a scary moment in the 3rd period where Alicia Barry hit the deck hard, holding her head and wincing in pain. She didn’t move off the ice for several minutes.
“When Alicia got hurt we sat on the bench and said we didn’t want to allow a shot from that point on for the rest of the game. I think there was one long dump-in and that was it. When our team sets their mind to something, they’re pretty good at having that be a collective effort and goal and all working together and they did a good job of that today,” Coach Turner said.
When the final buzzer sounded, the seven Quinnipiac goals were credited to Taryn Baumgardt (2), Melissa Samoskevich (2), Kristin Tamberg, T.T. Cianfarano and Randi Marcon.
“I thought they were all good goals, and some gritty goals too, which is nice to see. It’s a huge confidence thing, knowing that Cass can put anyone out there and we can create opportunities to score goals,” Roesler said.
Now it is on to the next one for the Bobcats who face No. 7 Harvard (8-3-1, 5-2-1 ECAC) on Saturday.
“It’s a balance every week when you’re preparing for two hockey teams. You have to work on things in practice to be able to defend against both of them,” Coach Turner said.
Even after the dominant win over Dartmouth, Cass Turner is still not quite satisfied.
“There are times when we get a little antsier than we need to, so some of the things that are going to help us to get to pucks quicker is looking, communicating, so that we can be crisper in terms of what we’re doing on the breakout and same thing offensively. So some better puck support and being able to move the puck a little bit faster I think will put us in a better spot for tomorrow,” Turner said.
Puck drop between the two top ten opponents is set for 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at High Point Solutions Arena.
