Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Kirby Paulson
After a 2-2 tie the weekend before with Merrimack, the Quinnipiac Bobcats (16-7-5, 9-5-2 ECAC) were shut out by the Princeton Tigers (14-6-3, 10-4-2 ECAC) by a score of 3-0. Princeton completed a regular season sweep of Quinnipiac in the victory.
Quinnipiac head coach Cassandra Turner saw and highlighted some positives to take into the team’s next series even after the loss.
“In terms of people on our bench and how they were talking, the belief they had throughout the third period, the pride that they had; there was a number of things they could have taken in the wrong direction and gotten frustrated,” Turner said. “But they didn’t today, and I think that’s a real sign of maturity and something we’ve been pushing and I’m excited about that going forward.”
By the end of the opening frame, there was no score and neither team had tallied many significant scoring chances. The shot totals were 8-5 in favor of Princeton, and though Quinnipiac had held well in zone possession the Bobcats were unable to find the back of the net.
The best chance for either squad came with under two minutes remaining in the period. A shot by Keiko DeClerck began to slide past Rossman and almost found its way over the line. However, defender Taryn Baumgardt saved the situation as she swooped in and sent the puck clear of the crease.
While the opening frame kept the scoreboard empty, the second period swung in favor of Princeton. Fresh off of a penalty kill, Kelsey Koelzer had the puck on her stick and skated ahead into the Tigers’ attacking zone. With open space, Koelzer glided into the slot and ripped one past Rossman and into the top half of the net to give Princeton the 1-0 lead.
Later in the same period, Emma Woods was called for a trip and Neatby skated to the bench for the extra skater. With the extra attacker on the ice, Carly Bullock fed a pass over to Karlie Lund who put it past Rossman to pick up her team leading nineteenth of the season making it a 2-0 game. With the goal, Lund is now tied for second in goals throughout all of Division I college hockey.
Throughout the game, Princeton was running a fairly aggressive defense. Turner acknowledged the fact that there were efforts to try to keep the game simple.
“We wanted to move the puck a little quicker, we wanted to every time we got it have our feet moving, use our points and we had moments when we did but I think that’s something we need to continue to do more,” Turner said.
Princeton locked the game down in the third period not allowing a goal on just five shots and adding an extra tally to its lead. Just over eight minutes into what would be the closing stanza, Carly Bullock threw a shot on net creating a rebound off of Rossman. Molly Contini happened to be in the right place at the right time and put the puck into the back of the net to further seal the victory for the Tigers.
While Princeton was able to net three, Quinnipiac remained scoreless through the duration even after keeping the shots even by the final buzzer. Captain Emma Woods spoke of the importance of consistent shots on net when asked about possible frustration with the lack of pucks finding their way through.
“Obviously a little bit; I mean, we need to start scoring more goals to win hockey games,” Woods said. “But, I think getting the shots, kind of is a momentum thing for us and we have to start capitalizing on those and I think we’re getting to a point where hopefully those bounces start coming our way, so we have to keep working through it.”
After being shutout at home and swept by the Tigers during the season, Woods acknowledged frustration but using the loss as somewhat of a lesson in efforts to further the development of the team for the season.
“We want in this point of the season to grow each weekend and each game but obviously it’s a little bit frustrating, especially at home we want to win that game,” Woods said. “But moving forward, we’re going to the positives from the game and how we improved and we’re going to keep moving forward.
Quinnipiac will have a quick turnaround as Brown and Yale skate into Hamden on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.
