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Most Quinnipiac students had headed home for Thanksgiving break, but for those who stayed for Saturday’s women’s ice hockey game against the Colgate Raiders, it was certainly worth the price of admission.

This game started with a bang as just 57 seconds into the first period, Colgate’s Rosalie Demers beat Olivia Konigson in a foot race down the ice and lifted a shot stick-side high past Abbie Ives to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

Quinnipiac settled down after the goal and it wasn’t long before it was able to counter with an offensive attack of its own. The Bobcats went to the power play on a tripping penalty and senior captain Melissa Samoskevich wasted no time ripping a shot past Liz Auby to tie the game at one.

The Bobcats would take the lead just 15 seconds later as freshman Lexie Adzija toe-dragged a defender and beat Auby to the blocker side. The offense kept coming as just fives minutes later it was Kenzie Lancaster who fed it to a wide open Kati Tabin who sent a rocket to the back of the net giving Quinnipiac three unanswered goals and a commanding 3-1 lead.

Or so it thought.

The Raiders would top off a wild first period adding another goal with just 25 seconds left to send this game into the intermission 3-2. And after quite the offensive first 20 minutes, it was defense and special teams that ended up being the story of the game.

Quinnipiac continued its dominance on the penalty kill and even added a power play goal, but head coach Cassandra Turner felt like there was plenty of room for improvement.

“It’s huge, you definitely feel it when we have a penalty kill, the energy and momentum out of that [but] I would have liked for our power play to be better today, even though we did score,” Turner said. “We were uncomfortable in moments and we didn’t adjust and we didn’t adapt well.”

Defensively, it was once again the phenomenal play of Ives who kept the Bobcats in the game. Ives made big save after big save, tallying 32 on the evening.

“In moments today you could just see that the play slowed down for her. The times where she knew pucks were going to move to a player that was open and she was there and that’s the kind of goalie she is,” Turner said.

After going quiet for the better part of two periods, thanks in large part to Ives, the Raiders offense came alive in the late stages of the game. It looked as if the Bobcats would have a golden opportunity to put this game away as they went to the power play with just over seven minutes remaining in the game.

But it was the Raiders who found the back of the net. Jessie Eldridge scored her ninth goal of the year and second goal of the game, this time with her team shorthanded, on a breakaway.

Tied at three, the conference foes needed overtime.

The extra frame was all Colgate as it outshot Quinnipiac 5-0 and controlled possession for much of the five minutes. Ives and Quinnipiac’s defense were up to the task, as the Bobcats kept everything out of their net and secured a 3-3 tie and, more importantly, one point in the ECAC hockey standings.

“ECAC points are always good, we’ll take any point we can get,” Turner said. “I’m really proud of the fight and the battle from a few of our players today. There’s a lot of moments that we want back in that game but at the end of the day, there was so much grit and battle in the right moments to be able to keep that game a tie.”

Next up for Quinnipiac is an out of conference game against the Merrimack Warriors on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Hamden.

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