Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Kyle Levasseur
Saturday night was the latest edition of the continuing Quinnipiac goaltending problems from this season. Freshman Andrew Shortridge got his fifth start start in a row after taking over for junior Chris Truehl in the second period against Harvard on Jan. 6. Yet, it will be a night he will want to forget as he allowed in 3-of-9 shots before being pulled for Truehl just 22 seconds into the second period.
Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said, “They’re both good goalies, we just need a little more consistency out of both of them.”
Poor goaltending by Quinnipiac led to Arizona State easily handing Quinnipiac a 4-2 loss, it’s eleventh of the season.
“We just struggled,” Pecknold said. “I thought we were really good last night and it was the opposite tonight. It’s so disappointing.”
Great goaltending from Arizona State’s Joey Daccord, who saved 53-of-55 shots, was key in limiting Quinnipiac’s offense. Just 24 hours after the Bobcats tallied their most shots all season (57) and had their most goals (5) since Nov. 19, it took them 8 minutes into the first period to record a shot.
In the end, Quinnipiac totaled 55 shots but only found the back of the net twice, one of which came on the power play.
“We had a lot of really good offensive chances, we’ve just struggled to score goals this year,” Pecknold said. “I think we’re second in the country in shots on net, so we tend to shoot the puck a lot without traffic there, and we keep harping on the guys about getting bodies to the net and creating more net front traffic.”
Quinnipiac’s best opportunity came at the end of the first period when Jake Clifford left the game with a five minute major and game misconduct. However, a slashing penalty by Thomas Aldworth with one second left in the first period squandered the Bobcat’s chances and left them without a goal.
Assistant captain Tim Clifton thinks the power play is improving.
“I think we’re getting some good looks right now. We’re moving the puck well, we’re hitting one-timers, we’re hitting seams, we have great puck retrievals, great breakouts. I think we’re doing all the right things. We’re not scoring as many goals as we’d like.”
Pecknold said, “It happens a lot. You beat a team, you pound a team, one night and they come back and win another night. It happens all the time in the game of hockey.”
The Bobcats were able to get some offense going halfway through the second period, as Tim Clifton scored his sixth power play goal of the season, tied for second most in the ECAC. The goal came just seconds after he had a goal overturned for kicking the puck in the net. Clifton leads Quinnipiac with 21 goals on the season.
Tim’s brother, Connor Clifton, also found the scoresheet scoring in his second game in a row.
“It’s a really good group, so eventually I think we’ll figure it out,” Pecknold said. “I think last year everything went our way. We got bounces, we got timely saves, we got calls. This year it’s just the opposite; everything’s going against us.”
Quinnipiac (14-11-2, 8-7-1 ECAC) will return to conference play next weekend, traveling to Brown (4-16-1, 3-11 ECAC) on Friday, and down Whitney Avenue on Saturday to face Yale (10-7-4, 6-5-3 ECAC).
