By: M.J. Baird
NEW HAVEN – Saturday afternoon’s final regular season game for the Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey meant nothing on paper.
The Bobcats came into the game locked in as the No. 5 seed in the ECAC tournament, and already knew their first round fate: a long bus ride to Canton, New York to take on the No. 4 Saint Lawrence Saints.
But even though Quinnipiac’s playoff destiny was set, its opponent Yale was still fighting for the coveted eighth and final spot in the playoffs.
A win and Yale was in, a loss and the Bulldogs wouldn’t control their own destiny.
After 60 minutes of play at Ingalls Rink, the Yale Bulldogs punched their ticket to the ECAC postseason with a 2-0 win over Quinnipiac.
As in-state foes, games between Quinnipiac and Yale always are played with high intensity. And even though Quinnipiac couldn’t better itself in the standings, the Bobcats certainly wanted to play spoiler to the Bulldogs.
“Playing Yale is…it’s a rivalry for us,” Quinnipiac head coach Cassandra Turner said. “We want to play at our best and not owning that record against them before tonight was important to us. But I don’t think it showed on the ice tonight.”
“I think we need to be a lot better, and can be, and will be a lot better next week in the playoffs,” she said.
Saturday’s 2-0 win was the third time this season that Yale has shut out Quinnipiac, and the second time for the Bulldogs freshman goaltender Gianna Meloni.
Quinnipiac’s lack of scoring, a season long trend, could be attributed in part to the absence of senior forward Kenzie Lancaster from the lineup against Yale. Lancaster is second on the Bobcats’ roster in points, and didn’t suit up for Saturday’s contest.
Plus, the Bobcats have been without senior forward TT Cianfarano nearly all season long, missing all but two games due to injury.
However Turner believes that her team’s performance on Saturday was more of their own fault than Yale’s dominance.
“I don’t think we broke the puck out well today,” Turner said. “They put a lot of pressure on us and I think we lost our confidence with the puck. We really didn’t challenge them or possess the puck like we can or should.”
Yale’s scored its first goal on the power play, a well drawn up play that drew Quinnipiac goaltender Allison Small out to the top of her crease. A hard shot from the high slot trickled through Small’s pads, and Emily Monaghan slid the puck into the open net.
With under two minutes to go in the game, Quinnipiac tried to get Small off for an extra attacker, but the move didn’t go according to plan.
Small found herself in no man’s land by her own blue line, and a turnover in the neutral zone left Yale with an easy goal.
“I think it was just a miscommunication,” Turner said. “She is a young goaltender, and that was the first situation she’s been in like that in college hockey. I told her we weren’t in a position that we played well enough to win that hockey game today anyway, and that isn’t something she should feel poorly about.”
Despite the loss, Quinnipiac didn’t lose any ground in the conference. It is still the four seed, and it still has a daunting task ahead of it come next weekend in the first round of the playoffs.
“It is going to be a battle,” Tuner said with a smile on her face. “It’s fun hockey. No doubt (Saint Lawrence) have some talented players and I know our team is going to come ready to play.”
But before the Bobcats board the bus to head to North Country, they will have one thing on their mind this week during practice and in the classroom for mental preparation.
“The thing we just tasked them with is this,” Turner said. “How are you going to play at your best? What are the things you can bring to this team to be at your absolute best for next week? What is your skillset? What is the thing that is really going to help this team get into a position to reach the ECAC final four, which has been our goal all year.”
