The Quinnipiac University men’s ice hockey team earned a 2-1 win over St. Lawrence University on Friday night. It was a game that honored the many Quinnipiac students who are a part of the Student Veterans organization on campus and the Bobcats made them proud.
With the win, the No. 13 nationally ranked Bobcats improve to 19-8-2 overall, which also concludes that the first-place Bobcats will not finish lower than fifth in the ECAC standings.
Quinnipiac fought hard the entire game, but they got off to a rocky start as St. Lawrence’s Sean McGovern got the scoring started in the game for the Saints. He earned his seventh goal of the season just under six minutes into the opening period. The assist came from Ryan Lough who made a nice pass from behind the net that found McGovern.
Being the only action offensively in the first period, Quinnipiac head coach was not pleased with his team’s performance early on.
“I didn’t love our first period and I thought that was our weakest of the night, but our guys responded well in the second,” said Pecknold.
About eight and a half minutes into the second period, Quinnipiac’s Matthew Peca caused a turnover in St. Lawrence’s zone and Peca was able to pass it to Soren Jonzzon who tied the game for the Bobcats off of his long slap shot.
After providing the assist for Jonzzon’s goal, Peca was back at it again as he provided the help to give Landon Smith a wide open look at the net, which gave Quinnipiac a 2-1 lead.
However, it looked as if that lead would go away just two minutes into the third period, as the Bobcats were on the power play. Quinnipiac lost possession of the puck in the neutral zone and McGovern skated straight down center ice until Peca tripped him. This gave the Saints the opportunity to tie up the game through a penalty shot, something that Quinnipiac has not seen in several years.
McGovern was given the chance to take the shot and as he skated close to Garteig, he tried to score after switching from his backhand to his forehand, but Garteig played the shot perfectly as the puck bounced right off of Garteig’s chest.
That was one of Garteig’s 23 saves in net that eventually led Quinnipiac to another victory on it’s home ice. Pecknold has been happy of the way Garteig has improved his game over the last month.
“He just wasn’t playing well earlier in the season,” said Pecknold. “He was struggling and kind of overthinking his save selection and getting himself into trouble instead of just trusting his instincts. He’s really been lights out ever since Christmas.”
Being ranked at No. 20 for the first time this season, the loss by St. Lawrence ended their previous seven-game winning streak.
The Saints fall to 16-11-2 overall and 12-5 in ECAC play, keeping them in second place, five points behind the first-place Bobcats.
Quinnipiac continues its home stand as they welcome Clarkson to Hamden on Saturday, Feb. 14 with first puck drop at 7 p.m.
If the Bobcats pull off a win or tie against the Golden Knights, Quinnipiac will clinch a first-round bye in the ECAC tournament.
