By: Kyle Levasseur
ALBANY, NY – After winning the Whitelaw Cup for the first time in program history just one weekend ago, the No. 1 Quinnipiac Bobcats are on a mission to do something the program has never achieved, win a national championship.
With a 4-0 win over the No. 4 Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers, the Quinnipiac Bobcats (30-3-7) completed their first step in completing that mission.
With its win, Quinnipiac has tied the program record for most wins in a season, which was first set in the 2012-2013 season.
Heading into Saturday’s matchup, there was doubt regarding the health of Quinnipiac’s leading goal scorer, Sam Anas. The junior exited Quinnipiac’s last game against Harvard in the first period after getting checked head-on into the boards. The assistant captain did not return to the game. Originally listed as a game-time decision Saturday, Anas went on to play in place of freshman Craig Martin, and finished the game with one assist.
While all the hype entering the game was about Anas, it was starting goalie, Michael Garteig that stole the show.
“I think Michael Garteig was our best player. I thought he was outstanding, had great battle mode, and it was a nice resilient win.” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said.
Garteig finished the game with 27 saves, and is now tied for first in the nation in shutouts this season (10), and tied Ben Scrivens for the fourth most career shutouts in NCAA history (19).
“I think it’s huge for us. We create offense and at the same time was play solid defense and Gartsy (Garteig) is always big behind us. He’s (Garteig) part of our d-core,” defenseman Devon Toews said.
After struggling to maintain puck possession in the beginning of the first period, Quinnipiac’s power play sparked the offense. Travis St. Denis, tied for the ECAC lead in power play goals (10), ripped a one-timer from the left circle to put Quinnipiac up by one.
“Our power play is one of our strengths as a team,” St. Denis said. “We knew early on, if we were going to get a power play that we had to score on it.”
However, RIT would not go away easily. The Tigers’ defense did not allow a goal in the second period, keeping the game within one.
“Their (RIT) mentality was excellent,” Pecknold said. “They had no fear in their game. They played the number one team in the country, I give them a lot of credit.”
Less than three minutes into the third period, Quinnipiac received a much needed insurance goal off the stick of Scott Davidson. Not only was this Davidson’s eighth goal of the year, but it was also his third in his last four games.
“Getting that second goal was obviously huge for us. They had a lot of momentum at times in the game, and they carried the play at times,” Captain Soren Jonzzon said. “We were happy obviously going into the third to have a lead, but we knew that if we got one more it would kind of give us a little bit of a buffer, and take some of the wind out of their sails.”
Jonzzon also added to that buffer netting two goals himself. His first goal came from a beautiful no look pass from Connor Clifton, after Clifton deked out the defense. His second was an empty-netter with just under three minutes left in the frame, extinguishing RIT’s hopes of advancing to the next round.
Quinnipiac will face the winner of No. 2 UMass Lowell/No. 3 Yale Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Quinnipiac is 2-2-1 all-time against UMass Lowell, who finished second in the Hockey East playoffs. As for Yale, Pecknold’s squad has the advantage, losing just once in its last 14 meetings. However, that one loss came in the NCAA Tournament Championship Game.
