Photo Courtesy of QBSN
The No. 11 Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team defeated the Union Dutchmen 3-1 on Sunday securing a spot in the ECAC semifinals. Soren Jonzzon scored two goals for the Bobcats to aid the victory.
“Lando [Landon Smith] won two battles and was able to get the puck to me, and then on the first one I got a nice bounce off the d-man’s stick,” Jonzzon said. “And then the second one again Lando battled two guys, got the puck over to me, got a shot on net and it went in.”
The leading goal-scorer for Quinnipiac, Sam Anas, went down late in the first period with a leg injury and didn’t return to the ice for the rest of the game. With the absense of Anas, the Bobcats had trouble in the offensive zone in the third period. Union outshot Quinnipiac 11 to three.
“There’s guys who were playing more minutes to compensate for [Anas] and guys are making little plays that often go unnoticed but as a collectively group we were able to pick up the slack doing the little things,” Jonzzon said.
Michael Garteig recorded a career high 37 saves in the win, including 18 in the second period. Garteig said this was an important game for his confidence. “I thought to this point Colin Stevens outplayed me,” Garteig said. “I thought he was the better goalie the first two games. I just knew I had to be better.”
The Dutchmen cut the Bobcats lead to one when Matt Wilkins fire a shot from Charlie Vasaturo just three minutes after Jonzzon’s second goal.
The Bobcats were able to seal the victory in the final minute of the game. Matthew Peca netted a short-handed, empty net goal. Quinnipiac will play Harvard next Friday in Lake Placid for a spot in the ECAC championship game.
