Photo Courtesy: Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports Network
The No. 16 Quinnipiac Men’s ice hockey team (16-8-2, 11-2-1 ECAC) is on the road this weekend facing two ECAC hockey foes in Cornell (9-9-3, 7-6-1 ECAC) and No. 20 Colgate (14-9-3, 6-5-3 ECAC).
After going unbeaten this past weekend against Brown and Yale, the Bobcats look to continue their momentum into this upcoming weekend. Last weekend, sophomore Sam Anas and freshman Landon Smith each tallied three goals over the two games. Landon Smith recorded his first NCAA hat trick against Brown, where Quinnipiac defeated the Bears 5-3.
Sophmore Sam Anas also leads the team in goals with 16 and points with 31.
Co-captain Dan Federico ended the game against Brown with a plus-three plus/minus and Matthew Peca tallied one assist versus Yale to give him a team-leading 21 helpers on the season.
Quinnipiac and Cornell met early in the season where the Bobcats defeated the Big Red 1-0 off a goal from Tim Clifton late in the third period. Since then the Big Red have skated in 17 other games and are 7th in the ECAC.
Last weekend Cornell faced off in a home and home series against Colgate in which the Big Red defeated the Raiders 2-1 on Friday before the teams skated to a 2-2 tie on Saturday. Cornell has split the last four weekends with one win and one loss in each.
Cole Bardreau, Christian Hilbrich and Jake Weidner lead the Big Red offense. Bardreau is the team leader with 13 points while Hilbrich leads the team with 7 goals.
Sophomore goaltender Mitch Gillam has played in 17 games this season and has a nation leading 1.46 GAA, and .946 save percentage.
Cornell is third in the nation on the power play by scoring on 93.3 percent of its chances, but the Big Red have taken the fourth most penalty minutes per game in the nation with 15.52. They are also second in the nation defensively allowing just 1.81 goals per game.
The last game between Quinnipiac and Colgate was November 7th where the Bobcats defeated the Raiders 5-0. Sam Anas scored twice in the first period for Quinnipiac before Soren Jonzzon, Landon Smith, and Tim Clifton racked up three more during the game.
Colgate is currently sixth in the ECAC with 15 points, just one point behind Yale and Clarkson. The Raiders have not won a game since January 17th when they topped the Union Dutchmen 5-4.
Sophomore Tyson Spink leads the Raiders with 33 points while his brother Tylor Spink is close behind with 30. Sophomore Darcy Murphy leads the team in goals with 19 so far on the year.
The Raiders have just seven games remaining in the ECAC regular season while the Bobcats have just eight contests left, and are looking to maintain their three point conference lead over St. Lawrence.
