By: Kyle Levasseur
The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team is in the midst of a special season.
One of the reasons for their success is special teams. Quinnipiac (23-2-7, 14-1-5 ECAC) is second in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference in both power play percentage (28.8 percent) and penalty kill percentage (89.7 percent).
The Bobcats have scored the most power plays goals in the ECAC, and the second most in the nation, a whopping 36.
Harvard has the second most in the conference, nine less power play goals than Quinnipiac.
With the depth Quinnipiac has, it’s no wonder it thrives on the power play.
Headlining the first power play unit are junior forwards, Sam Anas and Tim Clifton, as well as senior forward, Travis St. Denis. All three are tied for the ECAC lead in power play goals, with eight apiece. Sophomore forward, Landon Smith, also has five goals on the power play, good for ninth in the conference.
Not to be forgotten is the “quarterback” of the unit, junior defenseman Devon Toews. He has one power play goal and is tied for the ECAC lead in assists with teammate, Chase Priskie, at 19.
With Quinnipiac running the umbrella power play, each player has his own job. For Tim Clifton, it’s causing chaos in front of the net.
“My job is kind of simple, get the puck to Toews, Sam, and Saint (Travis St. Denis), and just go to the net, and hopefully bang something in… If the puck squirts in the corner, I’ll get in there and win a battle.” Clifton said.
Clifton’s improvement over his career, as well as his value to the power play is obvious. He has has twice as many power play goals as last year. The ECAC co-leader in power play goals understands what is needed to be successful on the man-advantage.
“I think we all work really well together, and everyone knows their job, and knows their duty and we’re ready to work when we’re on the ice…I think it just comes down to making sure you outwork the other team,” says Clifton.
While Clifton uses his physicality to his advantage, Anas and St. Denis, use their sharp shooting to score. Anas being a righty, and St. Denis being a lefty, they line up on opposite sides of the ice, to open up an equally effective and deadly attack.
Assistant Captain St. Denis, tends to prefer shooting from inside the faceoff circle, from the goalie’s glove side.
“That’s a spot that I kind of always go to, and it kind of always seems to be the open area, so I just try to find that open, little quiet space where no one really is,” St. Denis said.
The other Bobcat with an “A” on his jersey, Sam Anas, has found much success from the other faceoff circle. While he says it’s not necessarily his favorite spot to shoot from, he did agree with St. Denis, that it’s a quiet spot on the ice.
While the ultimate goal on every power play is to score, Anas and his teammates try not to overlook other facets of the game during the man-advantage.
“There’s a couple things we focus on, not really just scoring goals. It’s getting momentum for our team, and worrying about getting second chances. A lot of times you work on a set play, and maybe the first look isn’t there, but the retrieval is after that, and making sure that you get that puck before them, and they don’t clear it down the ice is really important. The more zone time you have, then the more tired the killers get,” Anas said.
It’s evident that the Bobcats’ goal is to get as many quality shots on net as possible. They have 402 shot attempts on the power play, sixth most in the nation.
“Our big focus is to get pucks on net, and we’re not really scoring on that initial shot, we’re scoring on the second and third chances,” St. Denis said.
Recently on multiple occasions, Quinnipiac has had to pull goalie, Michael Garteig, in the last minutes of play, to try and force games to overtime.
“I think it’s just pure desperation. You’re adrenaline is flowing as much as it can, and it’s just about doing whatever you can to get pucks in net, and bodies on net, and knowing you have that one extra guy,” Anas said.
This weekend, Quinnipiac will face off against ECAC foes, Brown and Yale, in the last weekend of the regular season. It will need it’s power play more than ever, as Yale has the best penalty kill in the country, a 93.8 percent conversion rate.
But before it tries to solve Yale’s penalty kill on Saturday, Quinnipiac has a game Friday against Brown that could wrap-up the Cleary Cup with a win.
“Right now we’re focused on Brown, but we’ll deal with Yale later. We’re locked in on Brown, it’s what we do all the time, and we expect our players to do it, and it’s what we do as a coaching staff too,” Pecknold said.
