Photo Courtesy of QBSN
By Victoria Rutigliano
No. 9 Harvard (9-1-2, 5-1-2 ECAC) defeated conference foe No. 15 Quinnipiac on Saturday night by a score of 5-2. The Crimson victory forced a tie with the Bobcats atop the ECAC Hockey standings, two points ahead of third-place Clarkson.
The first period was a fast-paced back and forth game where Harvard scored in the first 16 seconds before Quinnipiac evened the score just two minutes later. The Bobcats led the first period shot total 18 to nine, and it wasn’t until the second period that the Crimson started to show their dominance.
“Their work ethic is off the charts. They have a lot of skill. They’ve always had a lot of talent… You could tell they’re hungry this year,” Quinnipiac co-captain Matthew Peca said, They’re off to a hot start and I think because their commitment level to detail you know they’re a tougher team to play against.”
Harvard’s Phil Zielonka scored 12 minutes into the second period right after a penalty-kill by Quinnipiac. The Bobcats had three penalties in the second period, which led to chances for Harvard.
“The biggest issue with our penalty kill is just the failed clears. I mean we got the puck on our stick and we’re not ripping it off the glass down the ice and its got to get out and we’ve been stuck with that all season long and sooner or later you’re going to pay for it. We paid for it tonight,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said.
With less than one second left in the second period, Harvard’s Sean Malone lit the lamp to push the Crimson lead to two going into the third period.
After coming into the weekend seventh in the NCAA on the powerplay, Quinnipiac could not find the back of the net on the man advantage Saturday night.
Pecknold said the problem with the power-play against the Crimson was losing battles on the face-off, while Peca said he was disappointed with the lack of energy on the man-advanntage.
“Our intensity seems to drop when we’re on a powerplay. We think when we’re up a guy you try to make cute plays where-as you gotta have the same mentality on a five on five shift.”
After a goal by each team in the last two minutes of the third period, the final buzzer sounded signaling the Crimson had won 5-2.
Going into the two-week winter break, Peca said he felt excited for the second half of the season.
“I thought we had a good first half, a little bit of a roller coaster. We’re sporadic in our effort and our commitment to detail and I thought we had a good first half of the season,” Peca said.
The Bobcats have 14 more ECAC games this regular season and look to face more conference match-ups after the break. Pecknold said he was comfortable with what the team has given him so far.
“We have a lot of freshmen a lot of sophomores in new roles and we’ve got some juniors in new roles… But all in all, outside of this game I’m pretty happy with our first semester and where we are. We’ve got to get better but we’ve had a pretty good show so far.”
The Bobcats will get back on the ice in three weeks when they host Princeton on Dec. 27.
