QBSN Athlete of the Week: Devon Gibney

By: Marc Schwartz / QBSN Staff Writer

After a brief hiatus, the QBSN installment is back in full force. This week’s QBSN Athlete of the week honors are awarded to Devon Gibney (Hopkinton, Mass.) of Quinnipiac University’s women’s lacrosse team.

The junior midfielder had a career weekend as the Bobcats kicked off a four game home-stand starting on Friday. Gibney tallied 9 goals and 2 assists in the two games to give her 11 points on the weekend.

Gibney got her career weekend started on Friday against St. Francis (PA), netting 3 goals and dishing out 2 assists in a winning effort. The Bobcats dominated the entire game, from start to finish, and walked away with an 17-10.

Gibney and the Bobcats continued their winning ways on Sunday, defeating fellow Northeast Conference rival Robert Morris 14-11. Gibney was the story of the afternoon here, tying a career high with 6 goals.

The two conference wins over the weekend improved the Bobcats record to 4-3 overall, 3-0 in the NEC.

Gibney was also awarded NEC Player of the Week honors thanks to her big weekend. On the season, Gibney ranks third on the team in goals (15), assists (6), and overall points (21).

Quinnipiac continues their 2011 season this weekend, when they host top conference rival Sacred Heart on Friday at 3 p.m., and a marquee non-conference matchup against the University of Denver Sunday at 11 a.m. 

Quinnipiac Beats Brown Bears in Two Games

By Ben Dias, QBSN Staff Writer

The Quinnipiac University men's ice hockey team shutout the Brown Bears 4-0 for the second consecutive night to win the ECAC Hockey Tournament first round series. With the victory the Bobcats advanced to ECAC quarterfinals for the sixth consecutive season. After Dan Clarke started in game one in goal for the Bobcats, Eric Hartzell got the start between the pipes in Game 2. 

“We made the decision Tuesday that Clarke would play game one and Hartzell would play Game 2,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “We trust both of them and they both played great this weekend.”  In game one Dan Clarke got the start in net and played brilliantly, stopping 22 shots and earning a 4-0 shutout. Hartzell was called on by Coach Rand Pecknold to man the pipes in Game 2.

“We trust Hartzell, he’s been great all year, and he deserved to play tonight.” “We trust both of them and they played great this weekend,” said Pecknold.

Hartzell proved up for the challenge for Game 2, stopping 26 shots and matching Clarke’s stellar effort from game 1 by earning a 4-0 shutout victory.  

Throughout the first period, neither team found any momentum due to careless play with the puck. The first period consisted of four penalties. Brown went on the man-advantage 5 minutes into the game as Bobcats sophomore forward, Russell Goodman was penalized for boarding in the Brown offensive zone. Brown couldn’t do much with the puck as the Bobcats interior defenseman blocked and deflected shots from the point. Bobcats goalie Eric Hartzell also warded off any chances Brown got on the powerplay with some stellar goaltending.  With 9 min left in the period, Quinnipiac went on the man-advantage as Brown’s Mark Hourihan was called for boarding. The Bobcats had some opportunities but their shots where wide of the goal.

Neither team could manage much offense in the first period. Brown’s Hourihan was called for his second penalty just a few minutes later, and the Bobcats went on their second consecutive power play with 6 minutes left in the period. The Bobcats did have some opportunities to capitalize on the man-advantage. Junior forward Yuri Bouharevich rocketed a shot off the cross bar, that bounced off junior forward, Scott Zurevinski’s glove and fell right into the stick of a wide-open Jeremy Langlois. Langlois took the bouncing puck and wristed it past Clemente. However, the referees called the goal off, because they determined that Zurevinski hand-passed the puck to the open Langlois.

Brown’s inability to get their offense going, together with many frustrating penalties led to the Bobcats first goal. Brown’s Harry Zolnierczyk was called for charging with just over 30 seconds to play in the first period. Quinnipiac had its third power-play of the period. The Bobcats ended the period tied scoreless with Brown.

After the second intermission the Bobcats knew they had to dominate the offensive zone and putt pressure on Brown’s penalty killing line. Quinnipiac had 1:30 remaining on the rest of the PP from the first period to work their offense.  The Bobcats wasted no time for their offense to finally strike. Sophomore defenseman, Zack Currie put the Bobcats on the board, just 35 seconds into the second period. Zurevinski skated with the puck from behind the endboards, rifled a pass at the right wing point to senior defenseman, Zach Hansen. Hansen rocketed a pass to Currie in the slot, who blasted a one-timer that sailed into the back of the net past Clemente’s blocker. It was Currie’s second goal of the season, and his first career postseason goal. 

The Bobcats struck right back less than 2 minutes later, when sophomore defenseman Loren Barron, shoveled the puck from the neutral zone to the left wing, where sophomore forward Jeremy Langlois fired a blast that had enough velocity and force on it to deflect off the pad of Clemente and find the back of the net, giving the Bobcats a 2-0 lead.  With the goal Langlois recorded his 17th of the season.

Eric Hartzell was huge in net for the Bobcats. Brown had back to back man-advantages in the second period. Neither power play amounted to anything for the Bears. Hartzell came up with a few big saves on the penalty kill. Brown had a few chances in front of the net, but Hartzell made a blocker and glove save. The Bobcats killed off the two penalties and it remained a two goal game.

Quinnipiac would have netted their third goal of the period if freshman defenseman, Corey Hibbeler’s break away chance had not missed the net. He tried to go top corner on Clemente, but his shot missed everything and went wide.

The third period was all Bobcats. QU continued to put pressure in the attacking zone as Brown’s defenders were constantly out of position and forced to play from behind. The Bobcats continued to push the puck up the ice and look for holes in the Bears defense.

With just under 10 minutes left in the third period, senior forward Zack Hansen scored his second goal of the series and third of the season. Hansen intercepted a pass in Brown’s defensive zone and skated along the right side-boards. He blasted a slap shot from the right wing point into the top corner beating Clemente’s glove side, extending the Bobcats lead to 3-0. It proved to be all the scoring the Bobcats needed. Hansen’s blast from just outside of the right wing circle, ended the night for Brown goalie Matt Clemente. For the second consecutive game, Clemente was pulled for the services of backup Anthony Borelli. Borelli didn’t help Brown’s cause as sophomore forward, Ben Arnt added the icing on the cake with less than six minutes to play. He wristed a shot over the blocker of Borelli into the back of the net, scoring his sixth goal of the season and proving to be all Brown could handle.

Quinnipiac’s first round sweep of the Brown Bears means that the Bobcats will travel to Ithaca, New York to take on the No. 4 ranked “Big Red” of Cornell. The Bobcats will play Cornell in a best-of-three ECAC Hockey Tournament Quarterfinals Series on March 11-13.

Men's Hockey wins Game 1 against Brown

By Brian Farrell, QBSN Staff Writer

On Friday night, the Quinnipiac Bobcats started off their 2011 playoffs with a bang as they defeated Brown 4-0 in the opening round of the ECAC playoffs. Quinnipiac’s Dan Clarke made 22 saves between the pipes for the shutout, while Brown’s Mike Clemente and Anthony Borelli combined for 23 saves.

Quinnipiac wasted no time jumping on the board first as Jeremy Langlois picked up the game winner just 15 seconds into the first period. Shortly after the opening faceoff, Langlois carried the puck through the neutral zone on the right wing with two Bobcats following and one Bruno defending. Russell Goodman was wide open on the right wing looking for the pass, but Langlois had a different idea as he rifled a wrist shot in the top left corner for the 1-0 lead.

“It gave us a little bit of confidence and all and all I thought we played well tonight,” said QU coach Rand Pecknold. “Then, when we needed it I thought [Clarke] was very efficient.”

“They played like a Division-I hockey team and we did not,” said Brown head coach Brendan Whittet. “We had no desire, no heart, no pride and it was obvious from the drop of the puck,”

Quinnipiac extended their lead to two 13:56 into the first. In most cases the pipes are a goaltender’s best friend, for Clemente that wasn’t the case. After Ben Arnt’s shot from the point rang off the right post it deflected off of Clemente’s back and sat in the crease where junior Yuri Bouharevich tapped it home for his first career playoff goal.

The Bobcats took a three-goal lead 4:55 into the second period on a Zach Hansen blast from the point. After Scott Zurevinski’s shot was blocked in the slot, the rebound went to the near-side corner, where Goodman sent it the right point. Hansen took the feed and rocketed the slap shot through Clemente’s five hole.

Clarke kept his shutout going after robbing Chris Zaires on the doorstep. As Zaires entered the zone he had a clear path to the net. He deked through the slot and tried to send the puck low on the right side. Clarke stuck out his left leg and stopped the puck with his skate. He got the start after backing up Eric Hartzell for most of the second half of the season, but earned a start in the final weekend of the season.

“I had the game against Union and after that I got some confidence,” said Clarke.

Following the save, Zaires was called for goalie interference and the Bobcats went on the power play. Kellen Jones broke in on the right wing and skated down low in front of Clemente. His initial shot was saved and picked up by Jones in the slot. Jones took the rebound on Clemente’s right, deked, dragged and ripped his wrister between the pipe and the Clemente’s blocker.

Following Jones’s goal, Brown pulled Clemente for Anthony Borelli. Borelli made 15 saves in his 34 minutes of shutout hockey.

“We’re not going to change our systems or who we are or our tactics,” said Whittet. “It is going to come down to who has more heart,” said Whittet.

The puck will drop at 7:00 for game two at the TD Bank Sports Center.

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Quinnipiac women eyeing ECAC title berth

By Kyle Brennan

Two seasons ago, Quinnipiac won just three games. Now, the Bobcats are one win away from playing for their first Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey championship.

No. 5-seeded Quinnipiac (22-11-3, 12-9-1 ECAC Hockey) travels to face top-seeded Cornell (28-2-1, 20-1-1) tonight at 7 p.m. at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, N.Y. in an ECAC Hockey semifinal.

It seems like the perfect turnaround story—a team that was among the worst in Division I two years ago is now on the doorstep of its first conference title. Even Quinnipiac coach Rick Seeley is surprised at how quickly the Bobcats have risen.

“In such a great conference, I didn’t think we’d be in the conference semis in my third year,” Seeley said.

 

“We’re definitely not the fourth-most talented team in the conference, but I think our kids started to believe. We started beating [teams] when they were committed and confident.”

That confidence grew even more last weekend when the Bobcats swept No. 4 Princeton in a best-of-three quarterfinal series.

“They were our two best games of the year,” Seeley said. “I was really impressed with a lot of them.”
Seeley praised the defense and goaltender Victoria Vigilanti for their play in the quarterfinal.

“It was inspiring to watch them,” Seeley said. “They were as inconsistent as anyone this year and I think they got together and decided, it’s up to us.”

For as good as Quinnipiac was last weekend, Seeley is making no bones about it—the Bobcats need to be darn near impeccable to upset the Big Red, who are ranked No. 2 in the country.

“We have to be close to perfect,” Seeley said. “They’re an exceptional team from top to bottom. It’s going to take a perfect effort just to have a chance to beat them.”

In two previous meetings this season, Cornell beat Quinnipiac by a combined 9-1, including a 4-0 shutout of the Bobcats on Nov. 20 in Ithaca.

Though those results don’t look good, Seeley said Quinnipiac might not be as big of an underdog as it looks.

“Everyone knows they’re supposed to win, and they know that, too,” Seeley said. “But we tied them four straight games before this year, so I think we’re in their heads a little. I’m guessing we’re not the team they wanted to face in a one-game semifinal.”

Quinnipiac will be led by freshman Kelly Babstock, who was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Year on Wednesday after earning Rookie of the Year, All-League First Team, and All-Rookie Team honors.
Babstock leads the conference in goals (30), assists (28), and points (58). She’s also scored 10 game-winning goals and racked up 17 multi-point games.

“For a coach, she’s a once in a lifetime type of player,” Seeley said. “I’ve never coached anyone who wants to score on every shift, and she does. One-on-one—men’s or women’s—I’ve never seen anyone more consistent and win more battles than her.”

Cornell limited Babstock to just one assist in the teams’ previous meetings but Seeley said today’s Babstock is different than November’s version.

“That was early in the year and she was spending her time frustrated,” Seeley said. “They were on her before she had time to move. She’s dying to play right now. She might be too hyped up.”

The game won’t be exclusively about Babstock, though, as Cornell has outscored opponents, 142-31, thanks to six players scoring at least 10 goals and four tallying at least 40 points.

The Big Red are led by Rebecca Johnston (25 goals, 21 assists) and Brianne Jenner (22 goals, 24 assists) among others. Although Seeley praised the depth of the Cornell offense and defense, he said it will be important to look for mistakes.

“It’s imperative that we’re ready for the mistakes and take advantage of them, whoever makes them,” Seeley said.

Seeley said his team will need a sustained effort in order to advance to the ECAC Hockey championship on Saturday against either Dartmouth or Harvard.

“We know that it’s going to be like the last minute of play against the best team in the country for 60 minutes,” Seeley said. “We want to hold them off and try to score a goal. I think our kids believe that if we play as well as we can, anything can happen.”