Quinnipiac scores six, defeats Princeton and earns weekend sweep
December 1, 2018
Highlights:
Analysis:
Saturday night in Princeton, New Jersey featured the second game of a home-and-home weekend series between the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team and the Princeton Tigers.
It was a battle of the top two teams in ECAC Hockey, as the Bobcats entered the weekend atop the table with eight points, and Princeton close behind with seven points.
After the weekend, the standings look like this:
Night Number Two
Quinnipiac defeated Princeton 6-3 in game two on Saturday night, earning a weekend sweep of the No. 19 ranked Tigers.
The Tigers got on the board first on home ice, scoring in the final minutes of the first period. Princeton defenseman Josh Teves used his speed to create space on a rush up ice. Teves slid a pass across the slot on a 2-on-1 to Jackson Cressy who finished with ease on the back door. This marked the first time that Quinnipiac trailed in a game since Nov. 16 against Cornell.
But the Bobcats didn’t let that last long.
In the second period Quinnipiac senior Craig Martin netted a goal to even the score. Martin stumbled upon a loose puck in open space, turned and fired on goal beating Ryan Ferland blocker-side high.
Princeton struck back less than a minute later, as senior Ryan Kuffner beat Keith Petruzzelli top shelf on the glove side, putting the Tigers back on top.
But the second period featured much more.
Quinnipiac added two more goals to take its first lead of the game, each within seconds of each other. Freshman Michael Lombardi made a play of his own, beating Ferland with a snipe. And 35 seconds later Quinnipiac kept its momentum going, as Odeen Tufto fed a beautiful pass across the ice to Luke Shiplo who beat Ferland sliding right to left across the crease for the go-ahead goal.
Late in the period both teams went back and forth again.
In a 4-on-4 offensive zone face off for the Bobcats, Tufto won the draw back to Priskie who stepped into a one-timer that had eyes for the back of the net, giving Quinnipiac a 4-2 advantage. Less than 90 seconds later, Jackson Cressy netted his second goal of the game, this time on the power play, to bring the score differential back to one at the end of the frame.
And for the second night in a row, Quinnipiac put the game away in the third period.
Quinnipiac relied on what has been its most successful part of the game in the third: the power play. It even relied on the man that has been the most successful on the power play: Chase Priskie. A one-timer from the faceoff circe to the right of Ferland trickled into the net, the sixth power play goal of the season for the Bobcats’ captain.
Midway through the period, Craig Martin came onto the ice after serving his minor penalty. A blocked shot and outlet pass from freshman Peter DiLiberatore trickled into the Princeton zone leaving Ferland with a decision: let Martin in alone on a breakaway or come out and try to play the puck himself.
The Princeton netminder chose the latter, skating out of his crease and diving to swipe the puck away. But Martin beat him in a race to the puck nonetheless, completing a toe drag and tucking one in the open net to stretch the lead to 6-3.
The game would end that way, Princeton not electing to pull Ferland for the extra skater and settling for the loss.
The First Go-Around
Friday night’s game one in Hamden proved to be Bobcat dominance. Quinnipiac scored first, netting a power play goal from Priskie with 4.3 seconds remaining in the first period. Tufto won the faceoff, Wyatt Bongiovanni screened the goalie and Priskie sniped near side high on Princeton goaltender Ryan Ferland.
The Bobcats carried their one-goal lead into the third period, where they expended on it.
Scott Davidson netted his first goal of the season to stretch the Bobcats lead to two, and Quinnipiac followed up with an open net goal from Tufto to close the game out.
