By: MJ Baird
After the first period, the Quinnipiac men’s hockey team was down two goals to the St. Cloud State Huskies. But, it mounted a comeback to score five unanswered goals in the final two periods Friday night.
Quinnipiac (5-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) hosts St. Cloud (4-1-1, 0-0-0 NCHC) for a two game home stand this weekend. It took game one at High Point Solutions Arena Friday night.
“We showed our resiliency tonight. We’re a great character team, it’s a great group of guys and that’s a big win tonight and that’s going to help us all season long,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said after the game.
The Bobcats forecheck wreaked havoc all game long. Forwards attacked loose pucks with speed and intensity in the offensive zone, finishing checks and causing turnovers. Captain Soren Jonzzon used his size and strength to knock the Huskies off the puck below the goal line on multiple occasions.
St. Cloud State came out playing a dump and chase style in the first half of the first period. Only to change once it went ahead on a Judd Peterson goal at 13:28 of the first period. For the rest of the period the Bobcats were on their heels. They would escape the period only conceding one goal.
Peterson’s goal put an end to Quinnipiac goaltender Michael Garteig’s shutout streak at 157:52.
“The big message was stay the course, trust ourselves…this was our rink, we had the home ice advantage,” Pecknold said.
A shorthanded goal by Peterson only a minute and a half into the second period gave the Huskies a two-goal lead and took the momentum away from the Bobcats. Peterson put up his fourth and fifth tallies of the year, good enough to lead the Huskies.
Peterson’s second goal came after an icing against St. Cloud State was waived off. The next possession icing was called on Quinnipiac on a similar play. The Huskies scored off of the offensive zone face-off that ensued. Pecknold was furious at the officials, his voice being heard around the rink.
“At 2-0 the bench was a little bit down,” Pecknold said.
Adding to the frustration, Devon Toews was hauled down on a partial breakaway and drew a penalty shot on the play. Toews missed the net wide left on the shot.
Andrew Taverner scored his first goal of the season at the 10:34 mark of the second period, bringing Quinnipiac to within one of St. Cloud.
The game began to swing in the Bobcats favor following Taverner’s goal.
Pecknold said, “I think the first goal it got us going…it gave us some life. It got us going,” Pecknold said.
“I know their goalie was on a bit of a hot streak coming in so once we got that first one it kind of opened the floodgates for us,” said senior forward Travis St. Denis.
Shortly thereafter, St. Denis tallied his third goal of the season to tie the game. Minutes later he scored again, on the powerplay, from the same spot. Just below the face-off dot to Lindgren’s left.
Scott Davidson added a goal at the end of the second period to give the Bobcats a two goal buffer heading into the final stanza.
K.J. Tiefenwerth added one final goal with only 3 minutes remaining in the game.
A key to the Bobcat’s success in the second and third was their net front presence. At the end of the second and throughout the third the Bobcats had two bodies crashing Lindgren on every offensive possession.
“We did a good job in the second and third creating some chaos in front of the net. We had a lot of shots in the first but I didn’t think we had enough traffic so that was one of our focal points,” Pecknold said.
“We work on that a lot in practice. Our net drives and our wrap-arounds. We kind of got away from that last year so coach has kind of implemented that into our system this year,” St. Denis said.
Quinnipiac and St. Cloud State return to the ice Saturday night at 7 p.m. where the Bobcats look to sweep the series and remain undefeated.
