By: MJ Baird
Friday marked the decennial anniversary of the opening of the TD Bank Sports Center as the cornerstone of Quinnipiac’s York Hill campus. Today, the facility is regarded as one of the best in college hockey.
In the team’s first ever game in it’s new arena, Jan. 28 2007, Quinnipiac shut out Holy Cross, scoring seven goals.
Ten years later in 2017, Quinnipiac held true to form, defeating the Arizona State Sun Devils by a final score of 5-2.
Since 2007, Quinnipiac has ascended to one of the elite programs in Division I college hockey. Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold thinks his team’s success is due in part to the facilities.
“We had to have this,” Pecknold said. “If you want to be a top five program like we’ve been you have to have a big time facility.”
While playing home games at High Point Solutions arena is familiar to the Bobcats, the 2016-2017 season has been different than the norm for Quinnipiac hockey in recent years.
Last season it took merely 16 games for the Bobcats to notch 14 wins. Three seasons ago it took only 18 games to reach the same mark.
However this year it took 26 games, even after winning ten before Thanksgiving.
Quinnipiac got out to an early lead on home ice Friday night, with captain Connor Clifton using his poise and patience to beat Arizona State goaltender Robert Levin.
The goal was promising for the Bobcats, as they have lost only one game in the last three seasons when scoring the first goal at the High point solutions arena.
The Bobcats entered the offensive zone on a two-on-one, but with the Sun Devil’s defender electing to take away the passing lane, Clifton had an open lane and beat Levin one-on-one to the nearside top corner.
Quinnipiac was relentless the rest of the period earning a handful of power plays. The Bobcats second unit, headed by Luke Shiplo, featured four forwards, something not foreign to the Quinnipiac identity.
“We don’t focus on scoring goals, we focus on getting good looks,” Pecknold said. “If we can get enough good looks, we’ll score goals.”
The best opportunity for the Bobcats to get good looks was for Tanner MacMaster to drop back and act as a defenseman on the power play, and the strategy paid off.
It was on the fourth power play of the first period that Bo Pieper found the back of the net to put the Bobcats up two as they neared intermission.
For Quinnipiac, being up only two goals heading into the second frame clearly wasn’t enough. Before many fans could return to their seat for the middle period, the Bobcats added to their lead.
Alex Whelan cleaned up a rebound for his second goal of the season just 14 seconds into the period, a tally that would become the eventual game-winner.
“We want to be ready to go and have a good jump whether it’s the first the second or the third period,” Pecknold said.
Quinnipiac mimicked its style in the third period as well, scoring this time 38 seconds into the final frame.
Chase Priskie ripped a slap shot from the point that whistled past the outstretched glove of Levin, earning the Bobcats their second power play goal of the night.
“You get out there in the first couple of minutes and take it to them and it gives the team a lot of leeway,” Priskie said.
Andrew Shortridge made 20 saves on 22 shots in net for the Bobcats. Though he didn’t see high volume, Pecknold feels the freshman has become much more comfortable between the pipes.
“This was his fourth in a row and he has been playing very well right now,” Pecknold said. “We are very happy with his development.”
The Bobcats and Sun Devils are back in action Saturday night, for the second game of the weekend series in Hamden.
Pecknold feels another good performance from his Bobcats is essential to success the rest of the season.
“A big thing we have been focusing on is being more consistent with our play,” Pecknold said. “Tomorrow is going to be a great challenge for us. We haven’t been as good on the second nights.”
