All good things -- including Quinnipiac’s 17-game unbeaten streak -- must come to an end. Fortunately, there has been plenty of good in the Bobcats’ season so far.
The top team in ECAC Hockey and last week’s No. 1 in both national polls earned four out of a possible six points during a road weekend at Colgate and Cornell, but the latter opponent earned a 2-1 overtime win on Saturday night.
While the result of a first ECAC loss this season wasn’t what 18-2-3 Quinnipiac wanted, there were lessons to learn from the weekend in Upstate New York. The games only get tougher in February, March, and beyond, so facing a little adversity never hurts.
“Especially on a streak like we had, I think sometimes you might start veering a little bit from what got you there,” said senior defenseman Zach Metsa, who leads the ECAC with 18 assists and 23 points on the season after a two-goal, three-point Friday night against Colgate. “We came out a little slower than we would have liked and believe we didn’t play a full 60 in both games this weekend. …
“The result against Cornell was tough, but it gives us an opportunity to take a step back and remember how we’ve played all season. … The tough, physical games like Cornell, one-goal games, are the ones we’ll need to win moving forward to win the championships we want.”
Coach Rand Pecknold’s (Bedford, N.H.) team has certainly played a winning style from the opening puck drop in October, so Metsa and his teammates are hoping to make this past weekend’s series a mere blip on the radar.
The team’s stout defense -- backstopped by the goaltending duo of second-year Yaniv Perets and Notre Dame transfer Dylan St. Cyr -- has allowed only 1.04 goals and 16.6 shots per game this season. Perets hadn’t let in two goals in seven consecutive starts before Saturday night, pitching five of his eight shutouts in that span.
“I think what made us really good is just being very consistent up and down the lineup and wearing teams down throughout the entire 60 minutes,” Metsa said. “There are a bunch of games we’ve only given up 13 or 15 shots, so maybe our preparation hasn’t been as good or Cornell exposed a couple of holes that we have to tighten up.”
Senior T.J. Friedmann managed to score a tying goal at the 5:39 mark of Saturday’s third period before the Big Red’s Ben Berard netted his second of the game on an overtime power play. The Bobcats hadn’t lost since Oct. 23 against North Dakota or allowed more than one goal since Nov. 19.
Matching a team with the physicality and talent of Cornell is difficult and checks out as perfect playoff preparation. Of course, there won’t be many more games like last Tuesday’s 9-0 win over Princeton down the stretch.
Metsa pointed to a checklist of five trophies that his club is hoping to pick up before its season ends. After Wednesday’s return trip to Princeton, the team’s hunt for titles begins this weekend with the Connecticut Ice Tournament at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, where the Bobcats will be looking to avenge a championship loss to Sacred Heart from two years ago.
Though the Nutmeg State tournament is a new tradition, it already means plenty to the program.
“Watching the yard sale with their gloves and helmets everywhere stunk, so we’re definitely going into this one wanting to be that team,” Metsa said. “I saw a tweet from Sacred Heart a few days ago calling themselves ‘the kings of Connecticut,’ but we want that to be us. It was a fun environment and it’ll be a great chance to get that first trophy.”
The Bobcats have all the tools to keep on winning this winter, looking to match the team’s efforts in their last season that included a 17-game unbeaten streak. The 2015-16 year ended with the program’s second Frozen Four berth.
If all goes well this weekend, they’ll turn their attention to the final weeks of the ECAC season including the “Heroes Hat” against local rival Yale, the league’s regular-season and tournament titles and, of course, the chance to win a national championship in Boston.
Hockey East’s hottest
Merrimack swept first-place rival UMass Lowell with 3-1 and 3-2 wins to move into a tie for fourth (and only two points behind third-place Northeastern) in the Hockey East standings after beginning the weekend in seventh. Four wins during the Warriors’ current five-game win streak -- their longest since 2011-12 -- have come against ranked Providence and the River Hawks.
Junior Liam Walsh scored power-play goals in the second and third period to lead the Warriors, who are now ranked second among Hockey East teams in the all-important Pairwise at No. 14. (UMass is currently fifth. Merrimack was 29th before its current streak.) Walsh has nine points in his last seven games after his two-goal Saturday and assisting on defenseman Declan Carlile’s game-winner the previous night.
The Warriors continued their recent goaltending tandem as freshman Hugo Ollas and sophomore Zachary Borgiel split the games and earned victories, though Borgiel was run into by a Lowell player and left Saturday’s game. Ollas made 23 saves as Friday’s first star.
Shutouts and more streaks
UMass bounced back being swept at Michigan two weekends earlier, earning 3-2 and 6-0 wins over Northeastern in a home-and-home set. Senior captain Bobby Trivigno scored two of the Minutemen’s three goals in the first period to highlight a three-point game, lifting classmate Matt Murray to his 14th career shutout.
Boston College still hasn’t earned a Hockey East win in January, but its five-game skid ended with Saturday’s 1-1 tie at Providence. The Eagles lost 8-2 at Notre Dame and 7-0 to the Friars in their previous two games, but graduate Eric Dop’s 37 saves earned BC one point. For the Friars, Nick Poisson scored two goals on Friday and won the shootout the next night.
Boston University sophomore and soon-to-be U.S. Olympian Drew Commesso (Norwell, Mass.) made 35 saves to clinch his first collegiate shutout in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Vermont. Juniors Ethan Phillips and Robert Mastrosimone scored two goals in the series for the Terriers, who have killed off 27 straight penalties but lost their seven-game unbeaten streak in a 2-1 overtime loss on Friday.
The nation’s longest win streak this season belongs to American International, which captured a pair (4-2, 3-1) at Sacred Heart to extend its run to an even 10 games. Sophomore defenseman Brian Kramer and junior Jake Stella both scored a goal in each game, with Kramer’s on Friday counting as the game-winner.
Bentley sophomore Cole Kodsi scored in both of the Falcons’ games at Canisius, helping the team earn four out of six Atlantic Hockey points to remain in second place. Sophomores Ethan Harrison and Drew Bavaro scored two goals apiece in Friday’s 7-4 win in Buffalo. Bavaro, who leads the team with nine goals this season, had four points in the game.
Best of the Bulldogs
Yale enjoyed the best weekend of its ECAC Hockey season, sweeping Rensselaer and Union with 5-3 and 3-2 road wins. The Bulldogs won the latter game when sophomore Teddy Wooding (Wrentham, Mass.) scored 2:06 into overtime, but the team’s first star of the series was Ian Carpentier (Worcester, Mass.) who logged five points between the two games.
Carpentier assisted on the Rivers alum Wooding’s deciding goal against the Dutchmen after scoring two of his own to bring Yale out of a late second-period deficit. Freshman Luke Pearson earned his first collegiate win with 33 stops, following up a 23-save performance by reigning ECAC Goaltender of the Week Nathan Reid at RPI.
A former Boston Junior Bruin, Carpentier enjoyed a previous three-point night with two goals and an assist at RPI and has scored seven of his eight points in the last three games. Yale is now unbeaten in three straight and has gone 5-4-1 since a seven-loss start to the season.
Harvard lost for just the second time in nine home games to Clarkson on Saturday, but not before sophomore Alex Laferriere scored his team-leading ninth and 10th goals of the season in a 4-1 win over St. Lawrence. Junior John Farinacci logged his first three-point night, also supporting Mitchell Gibson’s 30-save effort. Gibson has allowed two goals or fewer in eight of his 12 decisions.
THREE MORE STARS:
Hockey East - Jonny Evans, Connecticut & Chase Stevenson, New Hampshire
These were the offensive stars of a two-game series in Hartford, Conn., as the Huskies bounced back from a Friday loss to remain one point ahead in the jam-packed Hockey East standings.
Evans lifted the Huskies to Saturday’s 3-2 win with the deciding goal -- his first since Nov. 13 -- at 1:58 of overtime, spoiling UNH senior Mike Robinson’s (Bedford, N.H.) 37-save effort. He also assisted on senior Marc Gatcomb’s (Woburn, Mass.) opening goal for the hosts.
Stevenson scored two of the three UNH goals in a 3-1 Friday triumph, scoring 8:51 into the third period to win the game. All three of his goals this season came in back-to-back games. On Friday, his two goals followed one by freshman defenseman Colton Huard, who has four goals and six assists during a current six-game point streak.
ECAC - Luke Krys, Brown
Krys scored the first game-winning goal of his career to cap off Saturday’s 3-2 win for the Bears at RPI. The native of Ridgefield, Conn., capped off Brown’s three-goal run at 6:44 of the third period after sophomore Matt Sutton and senior captain Tristan Crozier scored in the second, with the latter goal coming on a shorthanded breakaway.
The junior defenseman has logged six of his seven total points -- which are good for a three-way tie for second on the team and tops among defensemen -- in his last eight games. His 58 blocked shots this season rank third nationally and are 36 more than his closest teammate.
Atlantic - Anthony Vincent, Holy Cross
The senior assistant captain and Salisbury School product from Wilton, Conn., has scored all of his four goals this season within the Crusaders’ last five games after finding the back of the net in each contest against Army West Point this past weekend. Friday’s 3-1 win was the team’s first in conference play since Dec. 4.
Vincent scored the first goal in Friday’s triumph before classmate Ryan Leibold marked the scoresheet in both the second and third periods, winning the game with an unassisted tally.
THIS WEEK’S HAT TRICK:
1. Another week, another clash: The Hockey East schedule includes just five games across all of next weekend, but Sunday’s UMass Lowell-UMass meeting at the Tsongas Center could turn out to be a battle for first place. The Minutemen took four of a possible six points when the two university system rivals played a home-and-home set in early December.
Both teams will be in action on Friday as UMass hosts Providence and Lowell travels down to Northeastern. The Minutemen will also get a Tuesday visit from Boston University, which is slated to cap off the week with a Sunday home game against Providence.
2. Connecticut Ice: The Beanpot is now just weeks away, but the second-ever Connecticut Ice Tournament will be the first battle for New England hockey bragging rights this year. The Nutmeg State’s four Division 1 men’s programs will battle it out in Bridgeport, where Sacred Heart plays its home games and won the inaugural edition of the tournament two years ago.
The Pioneers will get the stiff challenge of Quinnipiac in Saturday’s semifinal nightcap at 7 p.m., while UConn opens the tournament against Yale. The championship and consolation games will be played on Sunday.
3. Elsewhere: It’s going to be a busy week throughout New England as four rescheduled games will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, three in the ECAC. Harvard and Dartmouth will be at home on those respective nights to face the Capital District clubs before heading on the road for the weekend to face Colgate and Cornell.
In Atlantic Hockey, American International looks to continue its recent roll in a pair of games against Holy Cross beginning Thursday. Bentley, which sits right behind the Yellow Jackets in the league standings, returns home to Waltham, Mass., for two with RIT.
