Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: MJ Baird
Rand Pecknold shipped his team up to Boston to play the last placed team in Hockey East, the Northeastern Huskies.
The Bobcats sought their 18th win, while the Huskies looked for an opportunity to raise spirits and turn their season around.
After three periods of regulation and one overtime period, the game ended in a 3-3 tie.
Here is what I noticed from tonight’s game:
Ranked No. 3 in the nation, Quinnipiac has target on its back
Going into the game, Quinnipiac had only lost once. Leaving Matthews Arena on Saturday, Quinnipiac still had only one loss.
That being said, Rand Pecknold’s squad was lucky to steal the tie tonight.
“They’re a really good team, there’s no doubt about it. But we gave it away tonight,” Northeatern head coach Jim Madigan said postgame.
Thanks to Sam Anas’ power play goal on a bad penalty from Northeastern for too many players on the ice, the Bobcats escaped with a tie.
“They (Northeastern) probably deserved a better fate tonight,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said after the game. “I don’t think we were very good. I don’t think we deserved it.”
Having a low number placed before your team name in the box score means a lot to opponents, particularly Hockey East ones, and especially last place teams.
Fatigue is a factor
The Bobcats may have come into this game, the third in five days for the team, and taken Northeastern lightly.
The game saw some lineup shuffling for Quinnipiac, and the absence of Kevin Roy for Northeastern. The Bobcats were faced with a Northeastern team that was completely different than their record proves.
However, Quinnipiac didn’t live up to its end of the bargain either. “We didn’t have that passion,” Pecknold said. “Guys weren’t into it”.
Coming off a home-and-home with Princeton, the Bobcats had to travel to Northeastern to play in the proverbial “Dog House.”
“We don’t make excuses at Quinnipiac. For anything,” Pecknold said.
However it was evident through the lineup changes and lack of energy on the ice that the team was tired. Northeastern was able to take advantage of that, at least until the bad penalties kicked in.
Special teams is vital to success
Both team’s power play and penalty kill were very significant to Saturday’s outcome. The Bobcats went 1-for-4 on the man advantage, while the Huskies were 2-for-5.
With only a goal and three shots to show for it, the Quinnipiac power play is very good.
Coming into the game, the Bobcats were converting 26 percent of the time on the power play.
For yet another time this season, the cycle and puck movement in the offensive zone for the Bobcats was stellar.
Madigan said that will happen “when you play stupid hockey and you get penalties from upperclassmen… put that team on a 6-on-4 (man advantage).”
On the other hand, the Bobcat penalty kill did not live up to expectations.
Coming into the game, the Quinnipiac penalty kill was 67-for-75 (89 percent). Tonight, not so much.
“Our penalty kill was atrocious,” Pecknold said. “Not just the two goals we gave up, but we gave up more looks tonight than we have in the last 10 games combined.”
Perhaps the Huskies were able to exploit the weakness in the Quinnipiac penalty kill instead.
“We got the puck moving around tonight fast, which is key because they (Quinnipiac) like to overextend and we were able to find that middle guy,” Northeastern forward Mike McMurtry said.
Quinnipiac moves to 17-1-3 (8-0-2, ECAC) and will host Union next Thursday, Jan. 9.
Northeastern moves to 3-12-4 (0-8-2, HEA) and its next game is next Friday, Jan. 8 at St. Lawrence.
