Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By Sierra Goodwill
The power play has been a staple of the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team, averaging a .187 success rate in the last 10 years. However, this year it has been one of the team’s biggest weaknesses.
The Bobcats haven’t capitalized on a single one of their last 21 tries with the man advantage spanning over the past three games, including 0-for-8 in their 3-2 win over the University of Massachusetts on Tuesday night.
“Our power play needs to be better. We have to work on it,” Head coach Rand Pecknold said. “When you’re playing Wednesday, Saturday and Tuesday, there’s no time. We’ve got good players, I think we just have to figure out the right combinations.”
These struggles come after the departure of Reid Cashman, the former associate head coach for the past five years. Cashman was often credited for the first-team power play success. Pecknold said Cashman was “phenomenal,” however; he is missing more than just him.
“Our problem is that Devon (Toews), Sam (Anas) and (Travis) St. Denis are gone. Those three guys were elite. The problem that we have right now is we have a lot of net-front, powerful type players. We don’t really have the Travis St. Denis’s who can run the half wall, so we are going to have to figure out a way to adjust and adapt.”
Junior forward Bo Pieper, who scored the second goal of the game on a bar-down beauty, echoed his coach’s thoughts on losing those offensive powerhouses. He can feel the void both on and off the ice.
“Those are big parts of out offense, but they’re big parts of our full team both in the locker room and on the ice. I think everyone is kind of looking to step up and hopefully I can be a guy who can continue to fill that role.”
Other than on the power play, Quinnipiac was not lacking in offensive opportunity. It put up 46 shots to UMass’s 19. Nic Renyard had an impressive showing between the pipes for the Minutemen, boasting a .935 save percentage on the night, but the Bobcats were able to get the upper hand.
“In the last couple of games we haven’t gotten as much shots on net as we’d hope for,” Pieper said. “Everyone’s an experienced player, some games pucks fall and some games pucks don’t.”
Tommy Schutt got the scoring started for the Bobcats in the first period by backhanding a rebound home. Pieper’s goal then extended their lead to 2-0 with just under six minutes to play in the first.
UMass scored with just under two minutes to play in the first period, which gave it momentum heading into the second. The minutemen scored the lone goal of the second period, tying the game up at two.
But, Quinnipiac was able to pull away in the final frame and Tanner MacMaster sealed the victory for the Bobcats.
So while it was a win for the blue and gold, there is definitely room for improvement.
“There’s a lot of frustration in our 5-on-4, not in other areas of our game,” Pecknold said. “We’ll be fine. We’ll figure it out. If there’s anything we’ve done well here in the last 10-15 years, we always have good power plays.”
And now it begins. Quinnipiac faces Clarkson on November 4 at High Point Solutions Arena for its first ECAC game of the 2016-2017 season. The Bobcats went to overtime in both of its games against the Golden Knights last season, and came out 1-0-1.
