Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Kirby Paulson
Meghan Turner notched a hat trick as the Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team shut out Brown 9-0 on Friday night. The Bobcats (17-7-5, 10-5-2 ECAC) had five different scorers find the back of the net while the Bears (5-19-0, 3-14-0 ECAC) were unable to register a point.
Quinnipiac head coach Cassandra Turner was clear on the importance of starting off a conference weekend with a win in this fashion.
“We needed to put the puck in the net, we needed different people to put the puck in the net, we needed some balanced scoring and just some consistency in terms of our effort from shift to shift and we found that tonight,” Turner said.
Quinnipiac opened up the scoring gate early in the first when Meghan Turner picked up the puck behind the net. Turner wrapped it out front and buried it through the pads of then Brown goaltender Monica Elvin for her seventh of her senior campaign. Turner would end up scoring another in the second period to add to an eventual point total of three.
Her third point came in the form of yet another goal. While on the power play and with the puck teetering in the air, Turner somehow got a stick on it and batted it past the line and into the net. The goal ended up qualifying for her first career hat trick, though Turner credited the team for the game’s success when asked how she felt about her feat.
“Really weird, I don’t know how to feel honestly,” Meghan Turner said. “But it was a whole team effort; like that last one Kate [Mackenzie] like hurt the goalie so she was down. It feels good and everything but I think it was just such a good team effort today; I think you know we had so many people get multiple point nights and everything, so I think that makes me more proud than anything.”
Sarah Eve Coutu-Godbout cashed in for three points on the evening while also scoring her first collegiate goal in the first period. Just eight seconds after Kenzie Lancaster put home her 13th of the season to make it a 2-0 game, Coutu-Godbout entered some traffic and fired a loose puck through the five-hole of Elvin. Later in the game, she was able to tally a second goal for her third point of the contest adding in a colorful goal celebration.
Coutu-Godbout was grateful for her team after her career night.
“It feels very great,” Coutu-Godbout said. “I’m thankful for my teammates who helped me achieve that.”
Freshman goaltender Abbie Ives was given the nod in the contest and registered her second shutout of the season after stopping all 11 of the shots sent her way.
Ives made a highlight reel save in the dwindling moments of the first period while Quinnipiac was on the penalty kill. With essentially a wide open net, Ives was forced to make a split save as the puck bounced off of her pad to keep the Bears off the scoreboard.
Cassandra Turner was pleased with Ives’ performance and progression in games and preparation this season.
“Abbie is an outstanding goaltender and we knew that before she came here but it’s been really neat to watch her and Syd [Rossman] support each other all year and to see her grow every day in practice and she showed that,” Turner said.
With eight different skaters registering multi-point games tonight, the Bobcats will look to continue their outburst of scoring when the Yale Bulldogs skate into Hamden tomorrow at 3 p.m.
